The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 30,560,000 shares, a drop of 21.7% from the February 28th total of 39,010,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 15,220,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days. Currently, 4.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of AES

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rockland Trust Co. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 16,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $206,000 after acquiring an additional 1,110 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in AES by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 34,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $683,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. raised its stake in AES by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 93.3% in the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV grew its holdings in shares of AES by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 85,866 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after buying an additional 1,382 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. HSBC initiated coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.63.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $12.42 on Monday. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $11.35 and its 200-day moving average is $13.81. AES has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.73 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.67%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

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.