AES Corp (NYSE:AES) – Stock analysts at SunTrust Banks issued their Q3 2019 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of AES in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, August 6th, according to Zacks Investment Research. SunTrust Banks analyst A. Agha expects that the utilities provider will post earnings of $0.40 per share for the quarter. SunTrust Banks also issued estimates for AES’s Q4 2019 earnings at $0.40 EPS.
A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Investment Research raised AES from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. ValuEngine cut AES from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $16.57 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Argus raised AES from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $19.00 price objective on AES and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. AES presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $16.77.
Shares of AES traded up $0.21 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $15.33. 4,811,759 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,312,839. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.41. AES has a 12-month low of $13.00 and a 12-month high of $18.52. The company has a market cap of $10.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.03.
AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.01). AES had a net margin of 3.78% and a return on equity of 18.94%. The firm had revenue of $2.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.43 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis.
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of AES by 4.8% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 645,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,822,000 after purchasing an additional 29,743 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 2.8% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 62,062,199 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,040,161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,688,310 shares during the last quarter. Natixis grew its position in shares of AES by 26.8% in the second quarter. Natixis now owns 1,465,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,560,000 after purchasing an additional 309,647 shares during the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 26.9% in the second quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 33,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $561,000 after purchasing an additional 7,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Colony Group LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 6.4% in the second quarter. Colony Group LLC now owns 18,256 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 1,096 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.82% of the company’s stock.
In related news, Director Jeffrey W. Ubben bought 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $15.25 per share, for a total transaction of $3,050,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.137 per share. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. This represents a $0.55 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.57%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.35%.
About AES
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.