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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Institutional Trading of AES

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

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.16 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average of $12.63 and a 200-day moving average of $15.54. AES has a 52-week low of $10.81 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.

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

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. AES’s payout ratio is 48.61%.

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.