AES (NYSE:AES) Lifted to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of AES (NYSE:AES) to a sell rating in a research report released on Friday.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $33.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 3rd. Barclays initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, August 23rd. They issued an overweight rating and a $25.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on AES from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 6th. Bank of America lowered AES from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $29.00 price target on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $28.08.

AES Price Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $17.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $19.36 and a 200 day moving average of $21.24. AES has a 52-week low of $16.89 and a 52-week high of $29.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -28.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.98.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.08 billion. AES had a negative net margin of 2.70% and a positive return on equity of 36.65%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that AES will post 1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 1st were paid a $0.1659 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -108.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AES news, Director Alain Monie purchased 27,400 shares of AES stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 16th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $18.27 per share, with a total value of $500,598.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 28,725 shares in the company, valued at approximately $524,805.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other AES news, Director Alain Monie purchased 27,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 16th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $18.27 per share, with a total value of $500,598.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 28,725 shares in the company, valued at $524,805.75. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Maura Shaughnessy bought 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $19.49 per share, for a total transaction of $243,625.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 60,653 shares in the company, valued at $1,182,126.97. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of AES

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Gyon Technologies Capital Management LP purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in AES by 5,681.8% in the 4th quarter. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 1,272 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 1,250 shares during the period. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in AES by 3,172.5% in the 4th quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,309 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,269 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.49% of the company’s stock.

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.