The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• The AES Corporation has received an average recommendation of "Hold" from 13 research firms, with ratings ranging from sell to strong buy.
• AES reported an EPS of $0.51 for the quarter, surpassing analyst estimates, but experienced a 3% decrease in revenue compared to the previous year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.176, which reflects an annualized dividend yield of 4.8%.

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.70.

AES has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Monday. They set an "in-line" rating and a $15.00 price target for the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $14.73 on Thursday. AES has a one year low of $9.46 and a one year high of $18.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.37, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.93. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.12. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%.The business had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. AES's payout ratio is presently 49.30%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 25.0% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,115,438 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $88,374,000 after buying an additional 1,421,899 shares during the last quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 37.4% in the 1st quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 291,418 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,619,000 after buying an additional 79,355 shares during the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,172,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 824,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $10,235,000 after purchasing an additional 20,109 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,270,543 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $15,780,000 after purchasing an additional 148,772 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Company Profile

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.

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