AES (NYSE:AES) Now Covered by Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of AES (NYSE:AES – Get Rating) in a research report released on Thursday. The firm issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AES. TheStreet cut AES from a b- rating to a c rating in a report on Monday, February 27th. Argus upped their target price on AES from $29.00 to $31.00 in a report on Thursday, December 1st. UBS Group upped their target price on AES from $28.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, November 29th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on AES to $30.00 in a report on Monday, December 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, March 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $31.00.

AES Stock Down 3.7 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $22.39 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.93, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.18. AES has a twelve month low of $18.62 and a twelve month high of $29.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.37.

AES (NYSE:AES – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. AES had a positive return on equity of 37.94% and a negative net margin of 3.99%. The business had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. AES’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that AES will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.1659 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 28th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.96%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently -75.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Andres Gluski sold 748,625 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.43, for a total transaction of $21,283,408.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,285,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,546,878.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. FMR LLC grew its stake in AES by 12.9% in the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,687,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $770,804,000 after acquiring an additional 4,194,730 shares during the period. M&G Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of AES by 99.4% during the second quarter. M&G Investment Management Ltd. now owns 5,309,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $111,509,000 after buying an additional 2,647,058 shares during the last quarter. Corvex Management LP boosted its position in shares of AES by 129.2% during the second quarter. Corvex Management LP now owns 4,535,596 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $95,293,000 after buying an additional 2,556,296 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of AES by 3,973.1% during the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,822,175 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $41,181,000 after buying an additional 1,777,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 69.1% during the third quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 3,173,571 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,723,000 after buying an additional 1,296,514 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.46% of the company’s stock.

About AES

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The AES Corp. engages in the provision of power generation and utility services through its renewable and thermal generation facilities and distribution businesses. It operates through the following segments: U.S. and Utilities Strategic Business Unit (SBU), South America SBU, MCAC SBU, Eurasia SBU. The U.S.