Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Lowers Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. decreased its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 73.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 327,063 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 914,630 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in AES were worth $4,062,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 94,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,176,000 after buying an additional 1,012 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its stake in AES by 79.5% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC lifted its stake in AES by 93.3% in the 4th quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV lifted its stake in AES by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 85,866 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,382 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AES by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,082 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,436 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.46 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 company has a market capitalization of $8.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.48. The AES Co. has a one year low of $9.46 and a one year high of $20.30.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. AES’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on AES shares. HSBC decreased their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.22.

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.