AES (NYSE:AES) Rating Lowered to “Underperform” at Jefferies Financial Group

AES (NYSE:AES) was downgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Finviz reports. They presently have a $9.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target would indicate a potential downside of 23.14% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. HSBC dropped their target price on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.22.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $11.71 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a 1 year low of $9.57 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $11.29 and a 200-day moving average of $11.90.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of AES

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in AES by 33.5% during the first quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 20,904 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after buying an additional 1,006 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC increased its position in shares of AES by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 26,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $327,000 after buying an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its stake in AES by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 94,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,176,000 after buying an additional 1,012 shares during the period. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in AES by 5.0% during the first quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 24,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $307,000 after acquiring an additional 1,173 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.