Mizuho Cuts AES (NYSE:AES) Price Target to $15.00

AES (NYSE:AES) had its target price cut by investment analysts at Mizuho from $16.00 to $15.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Mizuho’s price target suggests a potential upside of 36.80% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on AES. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. HSBC began coverage on AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.30.

AES Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $10.97 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.43. The company has a market cap of $7.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. 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 has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AES. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 8.0% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 830 shares in the last quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora boosted its stake in shares of AES by 1.0% during the third quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora now owns 84,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares in the last quarter. Live Oak Investment Partners boosted its stake in shares of AES by 3.9% during the third quarter. Live Oak Investment Partners now owns 29,241 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $587,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104 shares in the last quarter. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 16,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 3.5% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 34,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $683,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.