Dive Brief:

• AES third quarter 2014 operational earnings were $0.37 per share, down from Q3 2013’s $0.39 per share. Q3 2014 profit, however, was $0.67 per share, up from Q3 2013’s $0.44 per share because of a $361 million gain from the sale of the Philippines’ Masinloc power plant and the sale of four UK wind projects.
• The drought in Latin America cost AES an estimated $0.20 per share in Q3, but generation sales offset the cost of the company's continued stock buy-back. Q3 2014 net income was $488 million on revenue of $4.44 billion, short of the $4.51 billion analyst forecast.
• As a result of its Q3 performance, AES reduced its full year 2014 per share operational earnings forecast from between $1.30 and $1.38 to between $1.25 and $1.31 per share.

Dive Insight:

AES continues to expect a 10% to 15% average annual cash flow growth through 2018 from a $9 billion investment in 7,141 megawatts of generation capacity now under construction that will come online by 2018.

AES has repurchased 29.7 million shares of its stock since September 30, 2013, including 12.6 million shares for $182 million in 2014.

"We are continuing to deploy our cash to create value for our shareholders,” President/Chair/CEO Andrés Gluski said. “We expect to return up to $480 million to shareholders, through dividends and share buybacks, which is the highest in AES' 33-year history.”