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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $16.63.

AES has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. HSBC started coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays cut their target price on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th.

Institutional Trading of AES

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $224,000 after acquiring an additional 830 shares in the last quarter. Rockland Trust Co. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 16,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,110 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in 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 last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its position in AES by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WR Wealth Planners LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 93.3% in the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $12.42 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.83. AES has a 52 week low of $9.88 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 29.54%.

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.