Clayton Partners LLC Trims Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Clayton Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 183,008 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,566 shares during the quarter. AES comprises approximately 2.6% of Clayton Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Clayton Partners LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $3,215,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AES. CWM LLC raised its holdings in AES by 2.4% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 628 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its stake in shares of AES by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 44,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,000 after buying an additional 711 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 92.4% in the 2nd quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 720 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 4.7% in the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 18,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in AES by 102.3% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $18.90 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.43 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.01. The stock has a market cap of $13.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AES has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.50.

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.