Voya Investment Management LLC Sells 21,930 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Voya Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 203,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 21,930 shares during the period. Voya Investment Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $2,621,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in AES in the 3rd quarter worth $139,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 12.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,930,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,794,000 after purchasing an additional 333,154 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AES by 3.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 830,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,667,000 after buying an additional 28,043 shares in the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its holdings in AES by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 3,541,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,575,000 after buying an additional 32,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in AES by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 406,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,231,000 after acquiring an additional 43,792 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on AES shares. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $10.00 target price (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.71.

AES Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $10.19 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $9.57 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.37. The company has a market cap of $7.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.08, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. AES’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.91%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.54%.

AES Company 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.