AES (NYSE:AES) Shares Up 3.9% – Here’s Why

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)’s stock price rose 3.9% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $12.39 and last traded at $12.29. Approximately 987,619 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 94% from the average daily volume of 15,785,027 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.83.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the topic of several research reports. Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays cut their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, HSBC started coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.30.

AES Stock Up 0.3 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $8.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $11.25 and a 200 day moving average of $14.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 29.54%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased 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. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of AES by 35.7% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $216,862,000 after purchasing an additional 381,761 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of AES by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,261,000 after purchasing an additional 6,238,087 shares during the period. 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.