AES (NYSE:AES) Reaches New 52-Week Low on Analyst Downgrade

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week low on Wednesday after Susquehanna lowered their price target on the stock from $24.00 to $21.00. Susquehanna currently has a positive rating on the stock. AES traded as low as $14.50 and last traded at $14.55, with a volume of 716751 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $15.51.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a "buy" rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $22.38.

Institutional Trading of AES

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of AES by 11.4% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,392,110,000 after buying an additional 7,969,594 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of AES in the first quarter valued at approximately $123,272,000. M&G PLC grew its position in AES by 12.7% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of AES by 3.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $83,805,000 after purchasing an additional 141,565 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $17.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $10.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.77 and a beta of 1.10.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company's revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.92%.

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.