Benchmark Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Advanced Energy Industries (NASDAQ:AEIS)

Advanced Energy Industries (NASDAQ:AEIS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Benchmark in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $135.00 price target on the electronics maker’s stock. Benchmark’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 29.09% from the company’s previous close.

AEIS has been the topic of several other research reports. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Advanced Energy Industries from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Advanced Energy Industries from $98.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Advanced Energy Industries from $114.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 7th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Advanced Energy Industries in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Advanced Energy Industries from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.57.

Advanced Energy Industries Stock Performance

NASDAQ AEIS opened at $104.58 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $114.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $102.60. The stock has a market cap of $3.94 billion, a PE ratio of 22.39 and a beta of 1.58. Advanced Energy Industries has a fifty-two week low of $68.00 and a fifty-two week high of $126.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 2.51 and a current ratio of 3.80.

Advanced Energy Industries (NASDAQ:AEIS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The electronics maker reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by ($0.01). Advanced Energy Industries had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 9.52%. The company had revenue of $415.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $414.11 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Advanced Energy Industries will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Paul R. Oldham sold 3,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $338,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,434 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,567,740. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Paul R. Oldham sold 3,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $338,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,434 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,567,740. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Ronald C. Foster sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.46, for a total transaction of $246,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $693,598.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,080 shares of company stock worth $1,044,520. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Advanced Energy Industries

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEIS. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in Advanced Energy Industries by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 13,220 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,138,000 after purchasing an additional 828 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Advanced Energy Industries by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 395,624 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $34,056,000 after purchasing an additional 7,996 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its position in Advanced Energy Industries by 29.9% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,829 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $158,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in Advanced Energy Industries by 24.5% in the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,841 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $330,000 after purchasing an additional 755 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its position in Advanced Energy Industries by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 33,944 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,922,000 after purchasing an additional 2,519 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.67% of the company’s stock.

Advanced Energy Industries Company Profile

Advanced Energy Industries, Inc designs, manufactures, sells, and supports precision power conversion, measurement, and control solutions worldwide. It offers plasma power solutions, including direct current (DC), pulsed DC, low frequency alternating current, and high voltage systems, as well as radio frequency (RF) power supplies, RF matching networks, and RF instrumentation products; and remote plasma sources for reactive gas applications.