B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Sells 109,162 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG decreased its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 85.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 19,117 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 109,162 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in AES were worth $246,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cannell & Spears LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 4th quarter valued at $322,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of AES by 20.3% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,439,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,524,000 after purchasing an additional 242,942 shares during the last quarter. SCP Investment LP raised its holdings in shares of AES by 384.7% in the 4th quarter. SCP Investment LP now owns 139,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,797,000 after purchasing an additional 110,800 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its stake in AES by 19.3% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 54,449 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $689,000 after purchasing an additional 8,809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allstate Corp bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter valued at $268,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. HSBC started coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. 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. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.29.

AES Stock Down 9.5 %

AES opened at $10.77 on Friday. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.64. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $9.88 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a PE ratio of 7.48, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

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.