The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 21st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.176 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.67%.

AES has raised its dividend by an average of 4.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. AES has a dividend payout ratio of 32.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect AES to earn $2.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.7%.

AES Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $10.56 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.33, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $11.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.73.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.80.

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.