AES (AES) Q4 Earnings Beat Estimates

Group 1: Earnings Performance - AES reported quarterly earnings of $0.54 per share, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of$ 0.34 per share, but down from $0.73 per share a year ago, representing an earnings surprise of 58.82% [1] - Over the last four quarters, AES has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times [2] - The company posted revenues of$ 2.96 billion for the quarter ended December 2024, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9.12%, and down from $2.97 billion year-over-year [2] Group 2: Stock Performance and Outlook - AES shares have declined approximately 19.4% since the beginning of the year, compared to a decline of -0.3% for the S&P 500 [3] - The future performance of AES stock will largely depend on management's commentary during the earnings call and the earnings outlook [4][6] - The current consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming quarter is$ 0.43 on revenues of $3.27 billion, and for the current fiscal year, it is$ 2.02 on revenues of $12.79 billion [7] Group 3: Industry Context - The Utility - Electric Power industry, to which AES belongs, is currently ranked in the bottom 46% of over 250 Zacks industries, indicating potential challenges ahead [8] - Empirical research suggests a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions, which can impact AES's stock performance [5]