AES (NYSE:AES) Given “Buy” Rating at Argus

Argus reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of AES (NYSE:AES) in a research note published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $25.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on AES. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $21.57.

AES Stock Up 3.9 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $17.92 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.74 billion, a PE ratio of 54.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42. AES has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $25.74. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $16.28 and its 200-day moving average is $16.54.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.49 EPS. Equities analysts expect that AES will post 1.9 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.85%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 209.10%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter valued at about $260,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter valued at about $215,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 145.2% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 145,108 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,793,000 after acquiring an additional 85,926 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 70.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after acquiring an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter valued at about $184,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.