The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $22.43.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group dropped their price objective on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Barclays dropped their price objective on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. acquired a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Gyon Technologies Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 5,681.8% during the 4th quarter. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 1,272 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,250 shares during the period. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 3,172.5% during the 4th quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,309 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,269 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $18.08 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.85 billion, a PE ratio of 54.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $16.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. AES has a 12 month low of $11.43 and a 12 month high of $25.74.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. AES had a return on equity of 38.76% and a net margin of 2.12%. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.49 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.82%. AES’s payout ratio is currently 209.10%.

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.