Here is What Hedge Funds Think About The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. AES investors should pay attention to a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. There were 23 hedge funds in our database with AES holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are plenty of indicators shareholders can use to analyze the equity markets. A duo of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, bullish insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the stock market universe. There are lots of incentives for an executive to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if you know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, we’re going to take a look at the latest action regarding The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES).

How are hedge funds trading The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 19 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of -17% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

Of the funds we track, D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, holds the most valuable position in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES). D E Shaw has a $35 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. On D E Shaw’s heels is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $12 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism include Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) has faced falling interest from the smart money, we can see that there is a sect of hedge funds that elected to cut their full holdings at the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management cut the largest investment of all the hedgies we track, worth close to $3 million in stock., and Thomas Bailard of Bailard Inc was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $1 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 4 funds at the end of the year.

Insider trading activity in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest 180-day time frame, The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) has experienced 2 unique insiders buying, and 1 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

With the returns shown by the aforementioned research, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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