The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Sold by Prudential Financial Inc.

Prudential Financial Inc. cut its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 38.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,595,759 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,621,480 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.37% of AES worth $33,407,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AES. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new position in shares of AES in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of AES by 190.3% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 93.3% during the 4th quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter valued at about $63,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 18,047.1% in the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 6,136 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AES has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Mizuho dropped their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.56.

AES Trading Down 1.6 %

AES opened at $12.67 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $13.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.88 and a 1-year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. Analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.55%. AES’s payout ratio is 29.54%.

AES Company Profile

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market.