AES (NYSE:AES) PT Raised to $23.00 at Barclays

AES (NYSE:AES) had its target price lifted by Barclays from $22.00 to $23.00 in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.57.

AES Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of AES opened at $17.20 on Monday. 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 has a 12 month low of $13.55 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $12.22 billion, a PE ratio of 23.89 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $18.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.34.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that AES will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in AES by 0.9% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 279,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,607,000 after purchasing an additional 2,369 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. grew its position in shares of AES by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 646,208 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,956,000 after buying an additional 7,734 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in AES by 594.7% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 271,423 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,445,000 after acquiring an additional 232,355 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in AES by 3.2% in the third quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC now owns 69,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,401,000 after acquiring an additional 2,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schubert & Co acquired a new position in AES in the third quarter valued at approximately $390,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.