Korea Investment CORP Sells 146,939 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Korea Investment CORP lessened its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 17.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 716,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 146,939 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP owned 0.10% of AES worth $9,222,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in AES by 18.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT bought a new position in AES in the 4th quarter worth approximately $69,083,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,964,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in AES by 30.3% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,000,000 after acquiring an additional 892,500 shares during the period. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 53.0% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,596,850 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,031,000 after acquiring an additional 553,311 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AES shares. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AES presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.63.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE AES opened at $12.45 on Tuesday. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a fifty day moving average of $11.37 and a 200-day moving average of $13.77. The company has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.65%. 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.