Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc. Sells 1,456 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc. lessened its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 57,892 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,456 shares during the quarter. Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $744,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parametrica Management Ltd acquired a new position in AES during the fourth quarter worth $138,000. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,082 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,436 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC increased its position in shares of AES by 58.9% in the fourth quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 53,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $687,000 after acquiring an additional 19,784 shares during the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT bought a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth about $69,083,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $103,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AES. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays lowered their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.56.

AES Stock Down 1.6 %

AES stock opened at $12.67 on Wednesday. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $9.88 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $9.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.80, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $11.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.90.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.55%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.54%.

AES 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.