Korea Investment CORP Lowers Stake in The AES Corporation $AES

Korea Investment CORP reduced its holdings in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 42.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 409,342 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 307,224 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP owned 0.06% of AES worth $5,084,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its position in AES by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares during the period. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new position in AES during the 1st quarter valued at about $35,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in AES during the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. CVA Family Office LLC lifted its position in AES by 200.6% during the 1st quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares during the period. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its holdings in AES by 760.4% in the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 2,958 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. HSBC decreased their target price on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.67.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $13.4650 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $12.39 and a 200 day moving average of $11.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.96. The AES Corporation has a 12-month low of $9.46 and a 12-month high of $20.30.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st were given a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.30%.

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.