AES (NYSE:AES) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of AES (NYSE:AES) in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price points to a potential upside of 21.58% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on AES. Mizuho upped their price target on AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

AES Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $16.45 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $17.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.86. AES has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97. The company has a market capitalization of $11.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.85 and a beta of 1.07.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.21 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that AES will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Apollon Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter valued at $215,000. Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc. grew its stake in AES by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc. now owns 7,008 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $135,000 after acquiring an additional 806 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at about $57,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in AES by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,559,517 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,273,000 after acquiring an additional 10,002 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 146,117 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,813,000 after purchasing an additional 30,287 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.