The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Receives Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) have been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the twelve analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $19.30.

Several equities analysts 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 target price on the stock. HSBC started coverage on AES in a report on Friday. They issued a "buy" rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a "buy" rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock.

Institutional Trading of AES

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in AES by 18.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new position in AES during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,746,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in AES by 169.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $43,002,000 after purchasing an additional 1,348,195 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in AES by 30.3% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $77,000,000 after buying an additional 892,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new position in AES in the third quarter valued at $17,390,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $13.35. The company had a trading volume of 10,761,024 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,252,403. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $14.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $17.15. AES has a one year low of $12.53 and a one year high of $22.21. The firm 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.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that AES will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.27%. This is an increase from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.