Captrust Financial Advisors Sells 8,202 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Captrust Financial Advisors lessened its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 14.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 47,370 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 8,202 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in AES were worth $610,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 53.2% during the fourth quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 238,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,068,000 after acquiring an additional 82,802 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,499,000 after acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 578.2% in the fourth quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 950,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,236,000 after buying an additional 810,533 shares during the period. American Trust Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,561,000. Finally, ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 267.6% in the fourth quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 1,010,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,009,000 after buying an additional 735,800 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna cut their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays cut their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho cut their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.33.

AES Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of AES opened at $12.19 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.95. The company has a market cap of $8.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The AES Co. has a one year low of $9.57 and a one year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st were issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.78%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.04%.

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.