Yousif Capital Management LLC Sells 3,217 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Yousif Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 90,068 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,217 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $1,734,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AES. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 66,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,005,000 after purchasing an additional 9,436 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in AES by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 58,439 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $888,000 after acquiring an additional 8,697 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 131.0% in the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 301,086 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,577,000 after acquiring an additional 170,752 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in AES by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 3,000,303 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,605,000 after acquiring an additional 456,526 shares during the period. Finally, Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 42.3% in the 3rd quarter. Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc. now owns 6,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $94,000 after acquiring an additional 1,844 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.13.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $18.17 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.92. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.43 and a twelve month high of $23.16. The firm has a market cap of $12.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.05 and a beta of 1.08.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.80%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 209.10%.

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.