AES (NYSE:AES) Shares Gap Up Following Better-Than-Expected Earnings

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $10.38, but opened at $11.05. AES shares last traded at $11.18, with a volume of 3,256,144 shares.

The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.73 EPS.

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 of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.29%. AES’s payout ratio is 48.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Barclays decreased their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Susquehanna cut their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. HSBC began coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in AES by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after acquiring an additional 8,027,426 shares during 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 during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AES by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $216,862,000 after purchasing an additional 381,761 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in AES by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,261,000 after buying an additional 6,238,087 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Up 7.9 %

The stock has a market cap of $7.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

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.