The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $24.22.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup cut their target price on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, HSBC dropped their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, May 5th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $121,627,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 19.5% in 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 period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of AES by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,261,000 after purchasing an additional 6,238,087 shares during the period. Finally, Sound Shore Management Inc. CT bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $69,083,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Price Performance

NYSE AES opened at $11.29 on Friday. AES has a fifty-two week low of $9.46 and a fifty-two week high of $20.63. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $10.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $8.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.96.

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

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.