Susquehanna Has Lowered Expectations for AES (NYSE:AES) Stock Price

AES (NYSE:AES) had its target price dropped by Susquehanna from $16.00 to $15.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “positive” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Susquehanna’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 38.44% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on AES. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.30.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $10.84 on Wednesday. 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’s 50-day moving average price is $11.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.40. AES has a 52 week low of $9.88 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $7.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.52, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 19.5% in the fourth 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 last quarter. 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 valued at $775,354,000 after buying an additional 5,960,546 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in AES by 2.3% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in 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. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.