AES (NYSE:AES) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $11.99, but opened at $11.69. AES shares last traded at $11.62, with a volume of 913,399 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AES shares. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.30.

AES Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $8.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $11.27 and its 200 day moving average is $14.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.72%. AES’s payout ratio is 29.54%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised 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 purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $216,862,000 after purchasing an additional 381,761 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 6,238,087 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.