KBC Group NV Sells 4,725 Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

KBC Group NV decreased its position in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 15.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,149 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,725 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in AES were worth $325,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in AES by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 94,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,176,000 after acquiring an additional 1,012 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in shares of AES by 79.5% in the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares during the last quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV lifted its position in shares of AES by 1.6% during 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 during the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in AES by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,082 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,436 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in AES by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 222,539 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,864,000 after buying an additional 1,575 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.22.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $11.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $10.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.23. The AES Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $9.46 and a fifty-two week high of $20.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.95.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 10.67%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.