BNP Paribas Financial Markets Sells 283,825 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets lessened its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,075,332 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 283,825 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in AES were worth $21,571,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in AES by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 73,420 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,316,000 after buying an additional 6,684 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 77.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 18,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 7,897 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in shares of AES by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 40,871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $699,000 after purchasing an additional 2,327 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in AES by 46.1% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 24,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 7,691 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in AES by 45.1% during the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 6,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $108,000 after buying an additional 1,864 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Price Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $13.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $9.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $16.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.68. The AES Co. has a one year low of $12.53 and a one year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.29%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on AES. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Mizuho dropped their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.22.

AES 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.