AES (NYSE:AES) Price Target Lowered to $21.00 at Susquehanna

AES (NYSE:AES) had its target price lowered by Susquehanna from $24.00 to $21.00 in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.38.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES opened at $15.51 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.03 billion, a PE ratio of 10.77 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50-day moving average is $17.76 and its 200-day moving average is $18.29. AES has a fifty-two week low of $14.68 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.45%. AES’s payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in AES by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,392,110,000 after buying an additional 7,969,594 shares during the period. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth approximately $123,272,000. M&G PLC increased its position in shares of AES by 12.7% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after buying an additional 732,457 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in AES by 3.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,805,000 after buying an additional 141,565 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.