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

Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the fourteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.9091.

A number of research analysts have commented on AES shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen raised AES from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Evercore ISI started coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $15.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on AES from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bogart Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 406.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 1,869 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 232.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 2,484 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 1,737 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 50.8% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 3,401 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 1,146 shares during the period. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 33.5% during the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 974 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Trading Down 1.2%

NYSE AES opened at $13.86 on Monday. AES has a 1-year low of $9.46 and a 1-year high of $16.61. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $13.71 and a 200-day moving average of $12.34. The firm has a market cap of $9.87 billion, a PE ratio of 9.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.93.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 31st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.1%. AES’s dividend payout ratio 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.