Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Reduces Stock Position in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lessened its stake in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 18.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,144 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,328 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in AES were worth $412,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Mariner LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 84,061 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,082,000 after acquiring an additional 4,319 shares during the last quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 416,260 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,357,000 after acquiring an additional 15,626 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,809,000. Freedom Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 29,703 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after acquiring an additional 2,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 471,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,062,000 after buying an additional 164,910 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.67.

AES Trading Up 2.9%

AES stock opened at $13.31 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $9.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.37, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The AES Corporation has a 1 year low of $9.46 and a 1 year high of $20.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $12.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.39.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.30%.

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.