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

Whittier Trust Co. decreased its holdings in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 31.9% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 70,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 32,905 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in AES were worth $874,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new position in shares of AES during the 1st quarter worth $437,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in AES during the 1st quarter worth approximately $173,000. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in AES by 114.0% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 14,430 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 7,688 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $6,160,000. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in AES by 4.5% during the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 50,841 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,180 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock opened at $13.19 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.22. The AES Corporation has a 1-year low of $9.46 and a 1-year high of $20.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market cap of $9.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.95.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. AES had a net margin of 10.67% and a return on equity of 18.06%. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.34%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AES. Wall Street Zen lowered AES from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. HSBC lowered their target price on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.22.

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.