AES (NYSE:AES) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Evercore ISI

AES (NYSE:AES) was upgraded by stock analysts at Evercore ISI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on AES. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.50.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES opened at $18.90 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $17.40 and a 200-day moving average of $17.99. AES has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The company has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of AES

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. CWM LLC raised its holdings in AES by 2.4% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 628 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its stake in shares of AES by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 44,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,000 after acquiring an additional 711 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its position in AES by 92.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 720 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in AES by 4.7% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 18,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $326,000 after acquiring an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in AES by 102.3% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 898 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.