Diversify Advisory Services LLC Trims Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Diversify Advisory Services LLC trimmed its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,389 shares during the quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $299,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. abrdn plc boosted its stake in AES by 25.1% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 386,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,775,000 after purchasing an additional 77,662 shares during the period. First Financial Bankshares Inc boosted its stake in AES by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Financial Bankshares Inc now owns 184,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,697,000 after purchasing an additional 5,945 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its stake in AES by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 82,888 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,662,000 after purchasing an additional 5,605 shares during the period. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in AES by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC now owns 161,118 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,232,000 after purchasing an additional 14,010 shares during the period. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its stake in AES by 59.1% in the 3rd 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 period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays increased their target price on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.57.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $16.49 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $11.72 billion, a PE ratio of 22.90 and a beta of 1.07. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $14.67 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $17.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.29. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its 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 business earned $0.21 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.83%.

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.