The AES Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 21st, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of 0.176 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.67%.

AES has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. AES has a dividend payout ratio of 32.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect AES to earn $2.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.7%.

AES Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of AES traded down $0.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $10.56. 19,721,994 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,657,526. The company has a market cap of $7.50 billion, a PE ratio of 7.33, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.99. AES has a 52 week low of $9.88 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target for the company. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays cut their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.80.

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.