AES (NYSE:AES) Share Price Crosses Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)’s share price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $12.05 and traded as high as $15.00. AES shares last traded at $14.82, with a volume of 6,460,515 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded AES from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI started coverage on AES in a report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $15.00 price target on the stock. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.80.

AES Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $10.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.82. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $13.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.05.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.30%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 25.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,115,438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $88,374,000 after purchasing an additional 1,421,899 shares during the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in AES in the 1st quarter worth about $1,172,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in AES by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 824,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,235,000 after acquiring an additional 20,109 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in AES by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,270,543 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,780,000 after buying an additional 148,772 shares during the period. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC increased its holdings in AES by 39.6% during the 1st quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 1,349,118 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,756,000 after purchasing an additional 382,843 shares during the period. 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.