The AES Co. (AES) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 on May 15th

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 21st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of 0.176 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.67%.

AES has raised its dividend by an average of 4.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. AES has a dividend payout ratio of 32.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect AES to earn $2.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.7%.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE AES opened at $10.56 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $11.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.73. AES has a 1 year low of $9.88 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.99.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on AES shares. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays dropped their price objective 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. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.80.

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.