Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc. Reduces Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc. cut its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 1.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 61,618 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 949 shares during the quarter. Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,083,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Rise Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 92.4% during the second quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 102.3% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 898 shares during the period. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC purchased 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. 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 target on the stock. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective 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 given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.50.

AES Stock Performance

AES opened at $18.90 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $13.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.21.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.65%. AES’s payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

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.