AES (NYSE:AES) Upgraded to Neutral at Bank of America

AES (NYSE:AES) was upgraded by equities researchers at Bank of America from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm presently has a $13.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $11.00. Bank of America‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 16.28% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on AES. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho lowered their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.00.

AES Trading Down 3.5 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.18 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.95 billion, a PE ratio of 7.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $11.51 and its 200 day moving average is $14.52. AES has a 1 year low of $9.88 and a 1 year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.73 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter valued at about $121,627,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in AES by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after acquiring an additional 8,027,426 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in AES by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,261,000 after purchasing an additional 6,238,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.