The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Sold by Whittier Trust Co.

Whittier Trust Co. reduced its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 84.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 103,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 542,915 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,329,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AES shares. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho dropped their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.30.

AES Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE AES opened at $13.07 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.88 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The company has a market capitalization of $9.30 billion, a PE ratio of 9.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 29.54%.

About AES

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.