Brokerages Set The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) Target Price at $24.67

Key Points

• The AES Corporation has received an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from twelve analysts, with price targets ranging from $9.00 to $24.6667.
• In its latest earnings report, AES posted $0.51 EPS, surpassing estimates, despite a year-over-year revenue decline of 3.0%.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, with an annualized yield of 5.5% and a payout ratio of 49.30%.

Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $24.6667.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AES. Argus restated a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter valued at about $35,000. CVA Family Office LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 200.6% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 760.4% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 235.4% in the 1st quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 3,595 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 2,523 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

AES traded up $0.45 during trading on Friday, hitting $12.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,339,160 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,574,526. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. AES has a one year low of $9.46 and a one year high of $20.30. The firm has a market cap of $9.23 billion, a PE ratio of 9.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 0.92. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $13.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.80.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.4%. AES's payout ratio is currently 49.30%.

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.