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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $24.33.

Several research firms recently issued reports on AES. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. HSBC dropped their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $12.19 on Monday. AES has a twelve month low of $9.57 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.46, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.98.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st were given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.78%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.04%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the 4th quarter worth approximately $121,627,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in AES by 19.5% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in AES by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in AES by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,261,000 after buying an additional 6,238,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sound Shore Management Inc. CT bought a new position in AES during the 4th quarter worth $69,083,000. 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.