Banco Santander S.A. Has $4.96 Million Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Banco Santander S.A. lessened its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 42.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 247,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 184,196 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in AES were worth $4,963,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in AES by 161.8% in the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after purchasing an additional 66,145 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC grew its position in AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after acquiring an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments bought a new position in shares of AES in the third quarter worth about $816,000. Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its position in AES by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,522,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,658,000 after purchasing an additional 193,755 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in AES by 178.5% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 689,879 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,369,000 after buying an additional 442,184 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AES. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.38.

AES Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $13.24 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $16.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.95. The AES Co. has a one year low of $13.04 and a one year high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.41 billion, a PE ratio of 9.19 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.21%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

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.