The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Receives $19.30 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $19.30.

Several brokerages recently commented on AES. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho reduced their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock.

Institutional Trading of AES

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AES. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 3,541,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,575,000 after buying an additional 32,122 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 830,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,667,000 after purchasing an additional 28,043 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 12.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,930,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,794,000 after purchasing an additional 333,154 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of AES in the third quarter worth $139,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 3.5% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 34,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $683,000 after buying an additional 1,141 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $12.40 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average of $13.31 and a 200-day moving average of $16.20. AES has a 52-week low of $12.09 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

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

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.68%. AES’s payout ratio is presently 48.61%.

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.