AES (NYSE:AES) Stock Price Up 3.1%

Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) rose 3.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $16.70 and last traded at $16.70. Approximately 1,033,290 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 7,963,207 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.20.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AES has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Barclays dropped their price target on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.71.

AES Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $11.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.11 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.20%. AES’s payout ratio is presently 95.83%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AES. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after acquiring an additional 1,929,523 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in AES by 11.4% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its stake in AES by 76.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,373,460,000 after acquiring an additional 31,009,718 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter valued at $123,272,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 70.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.