California Public Employees Retirement System Trims Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,126,111 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 78,194 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.16% of AES worth $14,493,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AES. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 190.3% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 1,581 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 93.3% during the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC raised its stake in AES by 18,047.1% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 6,136 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in AES by 95.8% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,295 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 3,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in AES by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 6,978 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $90,000 after buying an additional 1,961 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho cut their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.29.

AES Stock Down 9.5 %

Shares of 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 has a fifty day moving average of $11.39 and a 200 day moving average of $13.64. The company 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. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

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

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.