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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $22.57.

Several research analysts have weighed in on AES shares. Barclays boosted their price target on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th.

Institutional Trading of AES

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in AES in the 1st quarter valued at about $211,000. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new position in AES in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. River Street Advisors LLC boosted its position in AES by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 16,002 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $287,000 after buying an additional 1,159 shares during the last quarter. Breakwater Capital Group purchased a new position in AES in the 1st quarter valued at about $182,000. Finally, InTrack Investment Management Inc bought a new position in shares of AES during the first quarter worth about $197,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of AES opened at $17.08 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $18.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $18.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97. The company has a market capitalization of $12.14 billion, a PE ratio of 23.72 and a beta of 1.07. AES has a fifty-two week low of $14.15 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. AES’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that AES will post 1.9 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st will be issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.04%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

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.