AES (NYSE:AES) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Here’s Why

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $13.24 and last traded at $13.26, with a volume of 8047922 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $13.75.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.38.

AES Trading Down 1.6 %

The company has a market cap of $9.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $16.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.95.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.29%. AES’s payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of AES by 18.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,746,000. Zimmer Partners LP increased its stake in shares of AES by 482.8% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,865,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,545,000 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of AES by 169.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,195 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in AES by 30.3% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $77,000,000 after acquiring an additional 892,500 shares during the last quarter. 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.