AES (NYSE:AES) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Seaport Res Ptn

Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES (NYSE:AES) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on AES. Bank of America started coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.80.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.18 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $11.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.52. The company 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 quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a 52 week low of $9.88 and a 52 week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.73 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its holdings in AES by 67.1% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,273,000 after acquiring an additional 133,308 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in AES by 5,143.7% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares in the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 34.6% in the third quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,261,000 after acquiring an additional 195,460 shares in the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd acquired a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter worth about $489,000. Finally, Leibman Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter worth about $2,375,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.