AES (NYSE:AES) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) shares gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $11.99, but opened at $11.69. AES shares last traded at $11.62, with a volume of 913,399 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on AES shares. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays lowered 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. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.30.

AES Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The company has a market cap of $8.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.05, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $11.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.73 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in AES during the 4th quarter worth approximately $121,627,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 19.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $632,865,000 after buying an additional 8,027,426 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 35.7% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in AES by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,261,000 after acquiring an additional 6,238,087 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in AES by 18.2% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.