AES (NYSE:AES) Rating Lowered to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

AES (NYSE:AES) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report released on Saturday.

AES has been the topic of a number of other reports. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.22.

AES Trading Up 3.9%

AES stock opened at $10.01 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $11.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.80. AES has a one year low of $9.46 and a one year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter valued at about $121,627,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in AES by 35.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in AES by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,261,000 after buying an additional 6,238,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sound Shore Management Inc. CT acquired a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter worth $69,083,000. 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.