Evercore ISI Upgrades AES (NYSE:AES) to “Strong-Buy”

AES (NYSE:AES) was upgraded by Evercore ISI to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on AES. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.50.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $18.90 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07. AES has a 12-month low of $11.43 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $17.40 and a 200-day moving average of $17.99.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AES will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after buying an additional 31,009,718 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in AES by 11.4% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of AES during the 1st quarter worth about $123,272,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 70.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AES by 2.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 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.