The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• The AES Corporation has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with 6 buy ratings, 2 strong buy, 2 holds, and 2 sell recommendations.
• The average 12-month price target for AES stock is $24.67, while recent fluctuations saw target prices adjusted by several firms.
• AES recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, representing an annualized yield of 5.3% and a payout ratio of 49.30%.

Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twelve analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $24.6667.

Several research firms have commented on AES. HSBC reduced their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Barclays lifted their price target on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd.

Institutional Trading of AES

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Optiver Holding B.V. boosted its position in shares of AES by 79.5% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in AES during the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. CVA Family Office LLC lifted its position in AES by 200.6% during the 1st quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in AES during the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its position in AES by 760.4% during the 4th quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 2,958 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Trading Up 3.8%

Shares of NYSE AES traded up $0.4950 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $13.4650. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,480,044 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,480,068. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The business's 50 day moving average is $12.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.45. AES has a 12-month low of $9.46 and a 12-month high of $20.30. The firm has a market cap of $9.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.96.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%.The company's revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were given a $0.176 dividend. 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 5.2%. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.