Morgan Stanley Reiterates Overweight Rating for AES (NYSE:AES)

Morgan Stanley reiterated their overweight rating on shares of AES (NYSE:AES) in a report released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has a $25.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $21.57.

AES Trading Up 3.9 %

AES stock opened at $17.92 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The stock 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. AES has a 12-month low of $11.43 and a 12-month high of $25.74.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.36 billion. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The business’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AES will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Capital World Investors lifted its position in AES by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,373,460,000 after buying an additional 31,009,718 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 38.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,821,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $559,689,000 after purchasing an additional 10,256,781 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 70.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of AES by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 69,671,801 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,341,277,000 after purchasing an additional 2,537,128 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of AES by 5,703.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,426,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $50,310,000 after purchasing an additional 2,385,094 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.