AES (NYSE:AES) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) shares gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $11.71, but opened at $11.28. AES shares last traded at $11.38, with a volume of 1,715,683 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AES shares. HSBC lowered their target price on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.22.

AES Stock Performance

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 firm has a 50 day moving average of $11.29 and a 200-day moving average of $11.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a PE ratio of 7.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st were issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.19%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is presently 38.04%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in AES in the 4th quarter worth approximately $121,627,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $632,865,000 after buying an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in AES by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,261,000 after buying an additional 6,238,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sound Shore Management Inc. CT acquired a new position in AES during the fourth quarter worth $69,083,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AES Company Profile

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.