The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.18 Per Share

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

AES has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.7% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. AES has a payout ratio of 32.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Price Performance

AES stock opened at $11.01 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $12.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. AES has a 1 year low of $10.81 and a 1 year high of $22.21. 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 (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. Analysts anticipate that AES will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AES. HSBC began coverage on AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Barclays cut 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. Susquehanna reduced their price objective 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. Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.80.

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.