Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Reduces Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. cut its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 75.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 67,414 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 212,256 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $868,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 8.0% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 830 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of AES by 664.7% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 219,270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,398,000 after purchasing an additional 190,596 shares during the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp grew its position in shares of AES by 10.5% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 172,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,450,000 after purchasing an additional 16,365 shares during the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the third quarter valued at approximately $429,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 1.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $134,286,000 after purchasing an additional 82,956 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of AES opened at $13.07 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $9.30 billion, a PE ratio of 9.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day moving average is $11.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.97. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $9.88 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. Analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on AES. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.30.

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.