Levin Capital Strategies L.P. Reduces Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Levin Capital Strategies L.P. lessened its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 61.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 386,726 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 625,634 shares during the quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. owned 0.06% of AES worth $7,444,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AES. FMR LLC grew its stake in AES by 38.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,821,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $559,689,000 after purchasing an additional 10,256,781 shares in the last quarter. CI Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 18,505.6% in the 3rd quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 2,030,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,862,000 after acquiring an additional 2,019,516 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of AES by 24.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,611,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $115,692,000 after acquiring an additional 1,484,052 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of AES by 114.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,677,405 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,697,000 after acquiring an additional 1,426,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of AES in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $14,531,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

AES stock traded up $0.78 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $18.95. 6,412,902 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,222,271. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.93. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.43 and a 1-year high of $23.07. The company has a market cap of $13.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.09 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. AES had a return on equity of 38.76% and a net margin of 2.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.49 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 209.10%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on AES shares. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. UBS Group cut their price target on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Mizuho started coverage on AES in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.13.

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.