AES (NYSE:AES) Trading Down 4%

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)’s stock price was down 4% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $18.30 and last traded at $18.33. Approximately 2,587,691 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 8,059,059 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.09.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AES shares. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of AES from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.88.

AES Trading Down 8.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The company has a market cap of $12.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.40 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.03.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $3.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.20 billion. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 36.23%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.22 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 2.7% in the first quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 3,559,999 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $63,831,000 after buying an additional 91,990 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of AES by 15.5% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 679,615 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,330,000 after buying an additional 91,247 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of AES by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,783,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $72,838,000 after buying an additional 204,448 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 370.1% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 116,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,770,000 after buying an additional 91,749 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AES by 70.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after buying an additional 2,670,001 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.