Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Lowers Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc cut its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 7.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,723,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 220,697 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc’s holdings in AES were worth $47,861,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors grew its position in AES by 76.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after purchasing an additional 31,009,718 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of AES by 11.4% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in AES in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $123,272,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 70.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AES by 2.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

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 firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The company has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a PE ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.21 earnings per share. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AES shares. Barclays reduced their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. 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 objective for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.50.

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.