The AES Co. (AES) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.17 on May 15th

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 23rd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of 0.1725 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th.

AES has increased its dividend by an average of 5.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. AES has a payout ratio of 33.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect AES to earn $2.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.69 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.2%.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $17.21 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $12.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.15 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.80. AES has a 12-month low of $11.43 and a 12-month high of $23.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.36 billion. AES had a return on equity of 38.76% and a net margin of 2.12%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.49 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that AES will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AES. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Mizuho assumed coverage on AES in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.13.

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.