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

Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $19.30.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on AES shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Susquehanna cut their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of AES by 18.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after buying an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in AES by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,513,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $330,125,000 after acquiring an additional 181,975 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in AES by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $134,286,000 after acquiring an additional 82,956 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 30.3% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $77,000,000 after purchasing an additional 892,500 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Trading Down 2.6 %

NYSE AES opened at $11.71 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.33 billion, a PE ratio of 8.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00. AES has a one year low of $11.57 and a one year high of $22.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that AES will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.176 dividend. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.61%.

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.