AES’s (AES) “Hold” Rating Reiterated at Jefferies Financial Group

AES (NYSE:AES)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $10.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $15.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 2.58% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.67.

AES Trading Down 7.9 %

Shares of NYSE:AES traded down $0.88 during trading on Thursday, reaching $10.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,441,637 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,187,028. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a 12 month low of $9.88 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $13.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.31 billion, a PE ratio of 7.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81.

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

Institutional Trading of AES

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Stephens Inc. AR grew its stake in AES by 67.1% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,273,000 after acquiring an additional 133,308 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 5,143.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of AES in the 4th quarter worth approximately $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AES in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in AES by 47.1% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 74,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $946,000 after buying an additional 23,764 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.