AES (NYSE:AES) Sets New 12-Month Low on Analyst Downgrade

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)’s stock price hit a new 52-week low on Tuesday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $17.00 to $12.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. AES traded as low as $10.99 and last traded at $10.93, with a volume of 3421534 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.44.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AES. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. HSBC started 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. Mizuho lowered their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.80.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new stake in AES during the third quarter worth $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in AES in the third quarter valued at about $63,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt acquired a new position in AES in the third quarter worth about $74,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 69.3% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,509 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The company has a market capitalization of $7.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $12.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.57.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.40%. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

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.