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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $19.30.

Several brokerages have commented on AES. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. HSBC started coverage on AES in a research note on Friday. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America began coverage on AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna cut 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, 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.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $13.35 on Friday. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $12.53 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $9.49 billion, a PE ratio of 9.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $14.99 and a 200-day moving average of $17.09.

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

AES Increases Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in AES during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its holdings in AES by 59.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of AES by 102.3% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 898 shares during the period. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of AES during the second quarter valued at about $33,000. 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.