GAMMA Investing LLC Trims Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

GAMMA Investing LLC cut its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 44.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,139 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 11,523 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $182,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in AES by 8.9% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 58,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,033,000 after purchasing an additional 4,799 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in AES by 21.5% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 66,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,173,000 after acquiring an additional 11,828 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in AES by 21.1% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 216,518 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,804,000 after acquiring an additional 37,684 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in AES by 169.5% during the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 42,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $741,000 after purchasing an additional 26,543 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Choreo LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES in the 2nd quarter worth about $376,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $12.40 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $8.82 billion, a PE ratio of 8.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $13.39 and a 200 day moving average of $16.22. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $12.09 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Susquehanna dropped their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.30.

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.