The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Receives $18.80 Average Price Target from Brokerages

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $18.80.

AES has been the topic of several analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Susquehanna decreased their target price 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. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target for the company. Finally, HSBC began coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 4th quarter valued at about $121,627,000. FMR LLC grew its position in AES by 19.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after acquiring an additional 8,027,426 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 64.2% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of AES by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Up 11.6 %

AES opened at $11.59 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $11.54 and a 200 day moving average of $14.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a 12 month low of $9.88 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $8.24 billion, a PE ratio of 8.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.73 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.08%. AES’s payout ratio is 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.