Raymond James & Associates Trims Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Raymond James & Associates cut its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 9.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,724,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 275,978 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned about 0.41% of AES worth $52,443,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AES. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Gyon Technologies Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. West Tower Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of AES during the second quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 55.0% during the third quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,417 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 858 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $17.25 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.07. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $25.74. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $16.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.36 billion. AES had a return on equity of 38.76% and a net margin of 2.12%. The company’s revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.49 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s payout ratio is currently 209.10%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AES shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Monday. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.57.

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.