The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Sold by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 2.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 52,150 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,044 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in AES were worth $1,046,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of AES by 18.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AES by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,513,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $330,125,000 after buying an additional 181,975 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in 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 worth $134,286,000 after buying an additional 82,956 shares during the period. M&G PLC lifted its stake in AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after buying an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 3.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,805,000 after acquiring an additional 141,565 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $12.50 on Thursday. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $12.49 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $14.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.97. The stock has a market cap of $8.89 billion, a PE ratio of 8.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.01.

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

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.63%. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Bank of America began coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.30.

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.