The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.50.

Several research firms have commented on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd.

Institutional Trading of AES

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in AES by 2.2% during 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 period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of AES by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in AES by 76.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after acquiring an additional 31,009,718 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in AES during the first quarter worth $123,272,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 70.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Stock Down 1.2 %

AES stock opened at $18.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company’s 50-day moving average is $17.86 and its 200-day moving average is $18.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.44 billion, a PE ratio of 26.26 and a beta of 1.07. AES has a fifty-two week low of $11.43 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.65%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.83%.

AES Company 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.