AES (NYSE:AES) Sets New 1-Year Low on Analyst Downgrade

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $17.00 to $12.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. AES traded as low as $10.99 and last traded at $10.93, with a volume of 3421534 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $11.44.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on AES. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target for the company. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.80.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AES. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new position in AES during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its stake in AES by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the third quarter worth $63,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the third quarter worth $74,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of AES by 69.3% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $7.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $12.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.92%.

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.