The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Short Interest Update

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 24,330,000 shares, an increase of 33.4% from the August 15th total of 18,240,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,620,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.50.

Institutional Trading of AES

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AES. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AES by 92.4% in the second quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 720 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in AES during the second quarter worth $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 102.3% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in AES in the 1st quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in AES during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Price Performance

AES stock traded up $0.47 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $19.01. 9,052,672 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,042,464. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.93. The company has a market capitalization of $13.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.49 and a beta of 1.07. AES has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.21 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

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.