AES (NYSE:AES) Now Covered by Analysts at Mizuho

Equities research analysts at Mizuho began coverage on shares of AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm set a "buy" rating and a $21.00 price target on the utilities provider's stock. Mizuho's target price suggests a potential upside of 29.07% from the company's current price.

AES has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays decreased their target price on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. UBS Group decreased their target price on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Argus reissued a "buy" rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $22.13.

AES Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $16.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,497,543 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,452,405. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $16.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.64. AES has a 52 week low of $11.43 and a 52 week high of $24.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $11.56 billion, a PE ratio of 49.30 and a beta of 1.08.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.06. AES had a return on equity of 38.76% and a net margin of 2.12%. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.49 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AES will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in AES by 15.5% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 679,615 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $10,330,000 after purchasing an additional 91,247 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in AES by 370.1% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 116,537 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,770,000 after purchasing an additional 91,749 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in AES by 81.2% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 351,220 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,339,000 after purchasing an additional 157,421 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in AES by 54.8% in the third quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 273,365 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $4,157,000 after purchasing an additional 96,808 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in AES by 16.7% in the third quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 352,276 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,355,000 after purchasing an additional 50,341 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.