Wellington Management Group LLP Decreases Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Wellington Management Group LLP decreased its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 136,315 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 14,350 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in AES were worth $2,734,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth $1,019,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its holdings in shares of AES by 30.3% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,000,000 after acquiring an additional 892,500 shares during the last quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth about $3,368,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in AES by 18.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its holdings in AES by 3.0% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 288,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,790,000 after purchasing an additional 8,294 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.30.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $12.87 on Wednesday. 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 AES Co. has a 52-week low of $12.53 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.03. The company has a market capitalization of $9.15 billion, a PE ratio of 8.94, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.01.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.47%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 48.61%.

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.