Seaport Res Ptn Downgrades AES (NYSE:AES) to Strong Sell

AES (NYSE:AES) was downgraded by Seaport Res Ptn from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on AES. Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus 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 Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $11.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.47. AES has a fifty-two week low of $9.88 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The firm has a market cap of $7.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.51, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in AES by 18.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after buying an additional 5,960,546 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 35.7% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $216,862,000 after acquiring an additional 381,761 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 64.2% in 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 during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.