Analysts Set The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Target Price at $20.22

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $19.30.

Several research firms recently weighed in on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. HSBC began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company.

Institutional Trading of AES

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AES. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 59.1% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 44,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $781,000 after acquiring an additional 711 shares during the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 3.2% in the third quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $528,000 after acquiring an additional 826 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 8.0% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 830 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OLD Second National Bank of Aurora lifted its position in AES by 1.0% during the third quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora now owns 84,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $13.35 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a twelve month low of $12.53 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $9.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.09.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. AES’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that AES will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.27%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 47.92%.

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.