The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.176 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.40%. This is a boost from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

AES has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. AES has a payout ratio of 33.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect AES to earn $2.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.69 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.8%.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $13.05. The company had a trading volume of 8,687,040 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,158,891. The company's 50 day moving average price is $15.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market cap of $9.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.01. AES has a 52-week low of $12.53 and a 52-week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a "buy" rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Susquehanna decreased their price target on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $20.22.

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.

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