Deutsche Bank AG Cuts Stock Position in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Deutsche Bank AG cut its holdings in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 42.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,266,613 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,684,311 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG owned approximately 0.32% of AES worth $28,151,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in AES by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $121,627,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 3.7% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,134,771 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $88,614,000 after buying an additional 255,512 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of AES by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,559,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $84,426,000 after acquiring an additional 628,911 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sound Shore Management Inc. CT grew its stake in AES by 13.6% during the first quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT now owns 6,097,946 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $75,736,000 after acquiring an additional 730,178 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Citigroup dropped their price target on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded AES from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.67.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $12.90 on Wednesday. The AES Corporation has a 12-month low of $9.46 and a 12-month high of $20.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $12.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.18 billion, a PE ratio of 9.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.96.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.