California Public Employees Retirement System Reduces Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

California Public Employees Retirement System trimmed its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,254,227 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 55,654 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.19% of AES worth $24,144,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AES. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 10,256,781 shares in the last quarter. CI Investments Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 18,505.6% during the 3rd quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 2,030,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,862,000 after buying an additional 2,019,516 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,611,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $115,692,000 after buying an additional 1,484,052 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 114.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,677,405 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,697,000 after buying an additional 1,426,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $14,531,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $17.21 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $16.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.15 and a beta of 1.08. The AES Co. has a one year low of $11.43 and a one year high of $23.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 209.10%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.