The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) Receives $23.91 Average Price Target from Brokerages

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the fourteen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $23.9091.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on AES shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $15.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its holdings in AES by 21.8% during the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 27,518,952 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $341,785,000 after purchasing an additional 4,930,252 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in AES by 30.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $258,224,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,149 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its holdings in AES by 975.3% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 3,086,164 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,466,000 after purchasing an additional 2,799,148 shares during the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc CT boosted its holdings in AES by 32.3% during the second quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc CT now owns 8,067,687 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $84,872,000 after purchasing an additional 1,969,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in AES during the first quarter worth about $18,357,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $14.26 on Monday. AES has a twelve month low of $9.46 and a twelve month high of $15.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.40. The company has a market capitalization of $10.15 billion, a PE ratio of 10.04, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The business’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 31st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. AES’s payout ratio is 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.