The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

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

AES has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays cut their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, HSBC started 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.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in AES in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its stake in AES by 59.1% in 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. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in AES in the second quarter valued at about $58,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in AES in the third quarter valued at about $63,000. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt purchased a new stake in AES in the third quarter valued at about $74,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $13.01 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $13.54 and its 200 day moving average is $16.29. AES has a fifty-two week low of $12.24 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.25 billion, a PE ratio of 9.03, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00. 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 results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.176 per share. 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 5.41%. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.