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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders purchased 18,306 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 26% compared to the average volume of 14,475 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on AES. HSBC began coverage on AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Mizuho cut their price target 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. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.80.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 190.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. raised its position in shares of AES by 79.5% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC grew its position in AES by 93.3% in the 4th 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 period. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in AES during the 3rd quarter valued at $63,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $11.59 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.05, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $11.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. AES has a 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-week high of $22.21.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.08%. AES’s payout ratio is 48.61%.

AES Company Profile

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.