AES (NYSE:AES) Price Target Lowered to $15.00 at Susquehanna

AES (NYSE:AES) had its target price dropped by research analysts at Susquehanna from $16.00 to $15.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “positive” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Susquehanna’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 38.19% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on AES. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho lowered their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. 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 objective on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday. One 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.30.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $10.86. 1,605,753 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,838,078. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. AES has a 12 month low of $9.88 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50 day moving average of $11.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.43.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.73 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in AES by 19.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after buying an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after buying an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of AES by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,499,000 after acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AES by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $216,862,000 after acquiring an additional 381,761 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 64.2% during 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.