The AES Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 21st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of 0.176 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.67%.

AES has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. AES has a payout ratio of 32.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect AES to earn $2.02 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 34.7%.

AES Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.12 during trading on Friday, hitting $10.56. 19,718,206 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,578,571. The stock has a market cap of $7.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $11.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.79. AES has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. 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 objective for the company. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One investment 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.