Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for AES (NYSE:AES) Stock Price

AES (NYSE:AES) had its target price decreased by Barclays from $17.00 to $12.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on AES. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. HSBC began coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Susquehanna dropped their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.80.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $11.45 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. AES has a 1 year low of $11.08 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00.

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

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.15%. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.92%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in AES by 5,143.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares in the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 34.6% in the 3rd quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,261,000 after buying an additional 195,460 shares during the period. Leibman Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in AES in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,375,000. M&G PLC boosted its holdings in AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after acquiring an additional 732,457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in AES by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 406,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,231,000 after acquiring an additional 43,792 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.