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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.38.

AES has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Mizuho lowered 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. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company.

AES Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE:AES opened at $13.04 on Monday. AES has a 1 year low of $12.97 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $16.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AES. CWM LLC grew its holdings in AES by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $477,000 after buying an additional 628 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its holdings in AES by 59.1% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its position in AES by 1.6% during the second quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 44,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,000 after purchasing an additional 711 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC raised its stake in AES by 92.4% during the second quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the period. Finally, SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $528,000 after buying an additional 826 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.