CluenexAES Corporation AES
AES Corporation scores weak on business quality (2.8 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What AES Corporation does
AES generates and distributes electricity through utilities and renewable energy projects, selling power to commercial and industrial customers.
- What it does best
AES deploys massive utility-scale renewables, ranking in the top quartile for return on equity at 43.3% while peers like TLN post negative returns.
- The main risk
Regulators face pressure from U.S. lawmakers to block the $33.4B BlackRock-led buyout, threatening the deal that underpins its current valuation.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margins sit at 18.1% with FCF margins deeply negative, showing that heavy capex prevents conversion of revenue into actual cash as the business scales.
Scale advantages in generation assets protect parts of its footprint, but a gross margin of 20.3% leaves it in the bottom decile of its sector.
Revenue growth is contracting at -0.4%, placing it in the bottom decile of its sector and flat compared to historical annual sales hovering near $13B.
Debt-to-equity sits at 7.4 with interest coverage at 1.6x, leaving little margin for error. Free cash flow is deeply negative at -$1.7B due to heavy capital spending.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on AES
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
AES Corporation scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (2.8 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is fair, moat weak, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 2, 2026.
See AES today
- Today's verdict on AES, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “AES Corporation (AES)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/aes/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.