AES (NYSE:AES) Price Target Raised to $32.50

AES (NYSE:AES – Get Rating) had its price target raised by Morgan Stanley from $30.50 to $32.50 in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Thursday, March 31st. They issued a hold rating on the stock. TheStreet cut AES from a b rating to a c- rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 1st. Citigroup assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Tuesday, March 22nd. They issued a buy rating and a $27.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn restated a buy rating on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, April 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $29.79.

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $22.49 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.63, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The business has a 50-day moving average of $23.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.61. AES has a 1 year low of $19.76 and a 1 year high of $28.50.

AES (NYSE:AES – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.02. AES had a positive return on equity of 31.10% and a negative net margin of 4.61%. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AES will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 29th will be issued a $0.158 dividend. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 28th. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently -96.92%.

In other AES news, CFO Stephen Coughlin acquired 47,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 4th. The shares were bought at an average price of $21.30 per share, with a total value of $1,001,100.00. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.77% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AES. Achmea Investment Management B.V. purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in AES in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in AES by 9,238.5% in the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management raised its holdings in AES by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 1,965 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 465 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 261.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,644 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 1,189 shares during the last quarter. 94.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About AES (Get Rating)

The AES Corporation operates as a diversified power generation and utility company. It owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries. The company also 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.

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