AES (NYSE:AES) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Bank of America

Bank of America began coverage on shares of AES (NYSE:AES) in a research report released on Monday morning. The firm issued an underperform rating and a $11.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on AES. Susquehanna decreased their target price 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. Barclays lifted their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho lowered their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.22.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $12.99 on Monday. AES has a one year low of $12.53 and a one year high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $16.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that AES will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.31%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AES. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of AES by 18.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new position in AES in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,746,000. Zimmer Partners LP grew its stake in shares of AES by 482.8% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,865,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,545,000 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 169.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in AES by 30.3% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,000,000 after purchasing an additional 892,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.