Clearstead Trust LLC Sells 38,667 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Clearstead Trust LLC trimmed its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 54.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 32,751 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 38,667 shares during the quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $630,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Private Trust Co. NA raised its holdings in AES by 68.8% in the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of AES by 133.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 1,779 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in AES by 57.8% in the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,550 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its position in shares of AES by 267.5% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 2,611 shares during the period. Finally, CX Institutional bought a new position in AES during the fourth quarter worth about $70,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on AES. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.13.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.26 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $18.67. 11,127,623 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,577,789. The stock has a market cap of $13.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.93 and a beta of 1.08. 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 fifty day moving average price is $16.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.97. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $11.43 and a 12 month high of $23.07.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 39.82%. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.36 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

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.