Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC Trims Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 91.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 23,817 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 247,683 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $307,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new position in AES during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 59.1% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 640 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in AES during the third quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt purchased a new stake in AES in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $74,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 69.3% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,509 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.16 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a PE ratio of 7.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $10.81 and a 12-month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. AES’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AES. HSBC started coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.80.

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.