AES (NYSE:AES) Given New $14.00 Price Target at Barclays

AES (NYSE:AES - Free Report) had its price target hoisted by Barclays from $12.00 to $14.00 in a report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the utilities provider's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Argus reissued a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.67.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AES traded down $0.04 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $13.77. The company had a trading volume of 2,886,778 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,316,775. AES has a twelve month low of $9.46 and a twelve month high of $20.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.80 billion, a PE ratio of 7.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $11.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 10.67%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business's revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.04%.

Institutional Trading of AES

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Optiver Holding B.V. raised its stake in AES by 79.5% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in AES during the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in AES during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. CVA Family Office LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 200.6% during the first quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 760.4% during the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 2,958 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

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.