Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of AES Call Options (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 23,067 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 82% compared to the average daily volume of 12,676 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Susquehanna lowered their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $10.00 target price (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.67.

AES Trading Down 5.2 %

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.53 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $9.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,496,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,348,285. AES has a 52 week low of $9.58 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.84. The company has a market cap of $6.87 billion, a PE ratio of 6.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.73 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.29%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AES. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 190.3% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. boosted its position in shares of AES by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares during the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC lifted its position in AES by 93.3% during the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 200.6% in the 1st quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 760.4% during the 4th quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 2,958 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.