Quantbot Technologies LP Sells 185,772 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Quantbot Technologies LP reduced its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 243,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 185,772 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in AES were worth $4,275,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AES. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in AES by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after purchasing an additional 31,009,718 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in AES by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after purchasing an additional 7,969,594 shares during the period. M&G Plc bought a new stake in AES in the 1st quarter valued at $123,272,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 70.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.50.

AES Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $19.01 on Tuesday. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $11.43 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The company has a market capitalization of $13.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.40 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $17.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

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.