IMA Wealth Inc. Sells 9,624 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

IMA Wealth Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 122,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 9,624 shares during the period. IMA Wealth Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $2,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AES. FMR LLC increased its holdings 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 during the period. CI Investments Inc. increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 2,019,516 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings 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 worth $115,692,000 after acquiring an additional 1,484,052 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its holdings 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 worth $40,697,000 after acquiring an additional 1,426,662 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $14,531,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on AES. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Mizuho initiated coverage on AES in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.13.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock traded up $0.08 during trading on Friday, reaching $17.21. The company had a trading volume of 4,772,193 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,139,495. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $11.43 and a 52 week high of $23.81. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.77. 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 company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42.

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

AES Announces Dividend

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

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.