Short Interest in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Expands By 33.4%

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in 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 trading volume of 7,620,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 1.9% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 124,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,237,000 after acquiring an additional 2,273 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in AES by 735.2% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 617,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,070,000 after purchasing an additional 543,464 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter valued at about $1,235,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 20.1% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 839,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,049,000 after buying an additional 140,610 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 178.5% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 689,879 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,369,000 after buying an additional 442,184 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.50.

AES Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.47 during trading on Monday, hitting $19.01. 9,052,672 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,042,464. The stock has a market cap of $13.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.49 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $17.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91. AES has a 12-month low of $11.43 and a 12-month high of $22.21.

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

AES Announces Dividend

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

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.