Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on AES (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 28,313 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 138% compared to the typical volume of 11,907 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on AES. Barclays lowered their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Mizuho decreased their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna decreased their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.80.

AES Stock Down 3.8 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.01 on Wednesday. AES has a 12 month low of $10.81 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The firm has a market cap of $7.82 billion, a PE ratio of 7.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $12.67 and a 200-day moving average of $15.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

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

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. 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 6.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in shares of AES during the third quarter worth $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 59.1% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in AES in the third quarter valued at about $63,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt acquired a new position in AES in the third quarter valued at about $74,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in AES by 69.3% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 1,509 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.