The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $24.22.

AES has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC grew its position in AES by 19.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $632,865,000 after buying an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its position in AES by 21.8% during the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 27,518,952 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $341,785,000 after purchasing an additional 4,930,252 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in AES by 30.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $258,224,000 after buying an additional 4,842,149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $216,862,000 after buying an additional 381,761 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $10.76. 27,264,505 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,154,337. AES has a 12-month low of $9.46 and a 12-month high of $20.30. The company has a market capitalization of $7.66 billion, a PE ratio of 5.85, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.96. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $10.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.27. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.13 billion. AES had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 10.67%. AES's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

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.