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

Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $18.30.

AES has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. HSBC initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. 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. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th.

AES Price Performance

NYSE AES opened at $13.07 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $11.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.97. 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 company has a market cap of $9.30 billion, a PE ratio of 9.07, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. AES has a 1 year low of $9.88 and a 1 year high of $22.21.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.39%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Institutional Trading of AES

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in AES by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in AES by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AES by 2.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 381,761 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in AES by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,261,000 after purchasing an additional 6,238,087 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.