AES (NYSE:AES) Given New $15.00 Price Target at Mizuho

AES (NYSE:AES) had its price target reduced by Mizuho from $16.00 to $15.00 in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Mizuho currently has an outperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday. Susquehanna decreased their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays decreased their target price on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, HSBC initiated coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.90.

AES Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $10.82 on Tuesday. AES has a 1 year low of $9.88 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $7.69 billion, a PE ratio of 7.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $11.48 and its 200-day moving average is $14.47. 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 issued its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The business 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 EPS. Equities analysts expect that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.51%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.54%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AES. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in AES in the fourth quarter valued at about $121,627,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 8,027,426 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 6,238,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of AES by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after acquiring an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.