AES (NYSE:AES) Earns Underperform Rating from Analysts at Bank of America

Bank of America started coverage on shares of AES (NYSE:AES) in a report published on Monday. The brokerage issued an underperform rating and a $11.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on AES. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays boosted their price target on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.22.

AES Stock Up 3.3 %

AES stock opened at $13.00 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $16.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.79. The firm has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of 8.73 and a beta of 1.10. AES has a twelve month low of $12.53 and a twelve month 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.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that AES will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.31%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.92%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in AES by 12.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,930,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,794,000 after acquiring an additional 333,154 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in AES in the third quarter valued at about $139,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 34,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $683,000 after buying an additional 1,141 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter valued at $204,000. Finally, Gould Capital LLC bought a new stake in AES in the third quarter valued at about $3,402,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.