The AES Co. (AES) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 31st

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of 0.176 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.40%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

AES has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. AES has a payout ratio of 32.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect AES to earn $2.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.3%.

AES Stock Down 3.8 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.01 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. AES has a 1-year low of $10.81 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The business has a 50-day moving average of $12.67 and a 200-day moving average of $15.57. The company has a market capitalization of $7.82 billion, a PE ratio of 7.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AES will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the topic of several analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Susquehanna dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Finally, HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.80.

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.