Zacks Research Forecasts AES’s FY2024 Earnings (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) – Research analysts at Zacks Research upped their FY2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for AES in a research note issued to investors on Monday, December 23rd. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now expects that the utilities provider will earn $1.95 per share for the year, up from their prior forecast of $1.94. The consensus estimate for AES’s current full-year earnings is $1.95 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for AES’s Q4 2024 earnings at $0.36 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.41 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $0.43 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $0.61 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $0.59 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $2.04 EPS.

AES has been the subject of several other research reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. HSBC started coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.30.

AES Stock Performance

AES opened at $12.84 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.92, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a fifty day moving average of $14.13 and a 200 day moving average of $16.65. AES has a fifty-two week low of $12.24 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 EPS.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of AES by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after acquiring an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AES by 1.1% in the third 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 last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 1.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,286,000 after purchasing an additional 82,956 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 12.7% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after buying an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,805,000 after buying an additional 141,565 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.48%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.61%.

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.