Barclays Cuts AES (NYSE:AES) Price Target to $12.00

AES (NYSE:AES) had its target price lowered by Barclays from $17.00 to $12.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on AES. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Susquehanna dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.80.

AES Stock Performance

AES opened at $11.16 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $12.63 and a 200-day moving average of $15.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. AES has a 52-week low of $10.81 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a PE ratio of 7.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AES will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.31%. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s payout ratio is presently 48.61%.

Institutional Trading of AES

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 5,143.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $991,000 after purchasing an additional 75,509 shares in the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC boosted its position in AES by 34.6% in the third quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,261,000 after buying an additional 195,460 shares in the last quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth about $2,375,000. M&G PLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 12.7% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after buying an additional 732,457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 406,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,231,000 after acquiring an additional 43,792 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently 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.