AES (NYSE:AES) Sets New 52-Week Low – Here’s What Happened

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) shares reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $13.24 and last traded at $13.26, with a volume of 8047922 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $13.75.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on AES shares. Barclays boosted their price target on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.38.

AES Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $9.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.54 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $17.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st were given a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. AES’s payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in AES during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Gould Capital LLC bought a new stake in AES during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,402,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AES by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,513,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $330,125,000 after purchasing an additional 181,975 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its stake in AES by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 37,211 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $746,000 after purchasing an additional 3,151 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in AES by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 220,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,433,000 after purchasing an additional 20,545 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.