Lmcg Investments LLC Sells 131,534 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Lmcg Investments LLC lessened its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 20.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 518,975 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 131,534 shares during the quarter. Lmcg Investments LLC owned about 0.07% of AES worth $6,679,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rock Point Advisors LLC lifted its position in AES by 34.6% during the third quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,261,000 after purchasing an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,375,000. M&G PLC lifted its stake in AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of AES by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 406,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,231,000 after buying an additional 43,792 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of AES by 28.4% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 257,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,163,000 after buying an additional 56,879 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays reduced their target price on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.30.

AES Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.85 on Tuesday. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.57 and a 1-year high of $22.21. 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 stock has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.85.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.92%.

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.