Short interest in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) down 17.4%

AES Co. (NYSE:AES – Get Free Report ) was the target of a large decline in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totaling 15,180,000 shares, a decrease of 17.4% from the July 15th total of 18,370,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 7,990,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

AES price performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $17.26 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.78, and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The company has a market cap of $12.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.97 and a beta of 1.08. AES has a 52 week low of $11.43 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.77.

AES (NYSE:AES – Get Your Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. AES had a return on equity of 35.44% and a net margin of 6.07%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% year-over-year. In the same period last year, the company earned $0.21 per share. As a group, analysts expect AES to post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES announces dividends

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. This represents an annualized dividend of $0.69 and a yield of 4.00%. AES’s payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

The Wall Street analyst weighs in

A number of research firms have issued reports on AES. Barclays cut their price target on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Mizuho raised their price objective on AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. The stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.71, according to MarketBeat.

Check out our latest analysis of AES

Institutional investors intervene on AES

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in AES by 2.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in AES by 11.4% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,392,110,000 after purchasing an additional 7,969,594 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in AES by 76.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,373,460,000 after purchasing an additional 31,009,718 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter valued at approximately $123,272,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 70.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $124,008,000 after buying an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. 93.13% of shares are held by institutional investors.

AES Company Profile

(Get a free report)

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 customers in the residential, commercial, industrial and government sectors; and generate and sell electricity on the wholesale market.

Recommended articles

Get news and reviews for AES Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for AES and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.