International Assets Investment Management LLC Sells 114,828 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

International Assets Investment Management LLC trimmed its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 82.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,890 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 114,828 shares during the quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $325,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new position in AES in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its position in AES by 59.1% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter valued at about $63,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter valued at about $74,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of AES by 69.3% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 1,509 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $12.02 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $13.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.95 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.35, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00.

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

AES Increases Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.86%. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho lowered their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays lowered their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.30.

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.