AES (NYSE:AES) Receives “Hold” Rating from Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed their hold rating on shares of AES (NYSE:AES) in a research report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a $10.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock, down from their prior target price of $15.00.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays dropped 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 upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, HSBC started coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.67.

AES Stock Down 7.4 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $10.31 on Thursday. AES has a 1 year low of $9.88 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $11.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $121,627,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $632,865,000 after acquiring an additional 8,027,426 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of AES by 64.2% in the 4th 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. Finally, Sound Shore Management Inc. CT purchased a new stake in AES in the 4th quarter valued at $69,083,000. 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.