The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Short Interest Up 33.4% in August

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 24,330,000 shares, an increase of 33.4% from the August 15th total of 18,240,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 7,620,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AES. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter valued at $57,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of AES by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,559,517 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,273,000 after purchasing an additional 10,002 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 698,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,227,000 after buying an additional 41,238 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 60.7% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 14,306 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $275,000 after buying an additional 5,402 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 29.4% during the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 93,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,797,000 after buying an additional 21,217 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Price Performance

NYSE AES traded up $0.47 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $19.01. The stock had a trading volume of 9,052,672 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,042,464. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.93. The company has a market cap of $13.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.49 and a beta of 1.07. AES has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.21 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that AES will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.63%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 95.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

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.