Traders Purchase Large Volume of AES Call Options (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 28,313 call options on the company. This is an increase of 138% compared to the typical daily volume of 11,907 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in AES by 5,143.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $991,000 after purchasing an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC lifted its position in AES by 34.6% during the third quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,261,000 after purchasing an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,375,000. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after acquiring an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 406,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,231,000 after acquiring an additional 43,792 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $10.96. The stock had a trading volume of 8,658,761 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,762,707. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a 12 month low of $10.81 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.79 billion, a PE ratio of 7.59, a PEG ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. AES’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that AES will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.42%. AES’s payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AES shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.80.

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.