AES (NYSE:AES) Trading 5.1% Higher – Should You Buy?

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) shares were up 5.1% on Friday . The company traded as high as $11.44 and last traded at $11.43. Approximately 3,130,089 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 15,698,849 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.87.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays dropped their price target 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. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.30.

AES Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.82, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. 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 (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.24%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AES. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in AES by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 266,672 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,349,000 after purchasing an additional 25,720 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in AES by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 357,402 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,169,000 after purchasing an additional 1,269 shares in the last quarter. United Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in AES in the 3rd quarter valued at about $368,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 237.8% during the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 74,668 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,498,000 after buying an additional 52,562 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC grew its position in shares of AES by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after buying an additional 732,457 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.