AES Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders purchased 55,003 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 298% compared to the typical volume of 13,809 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 8.1% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 174,884 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,172,000 after buying an additional 13,122 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in AES by 30.4% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 192,421 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,390,000 after purchasing an additional 44,812 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of AES by 104.0% in the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 90,902 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,129,000 after acquiring an additional 46,344 shares during the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT raised its stake in shares of AES by 13.6% during the 1st quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT now owns 6,097,946 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,736,000 after purchasing an additional 730,178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kovack Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in AES by 93.2% in the first quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 54,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $683,000 after acquiring an additional 26,524 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on AES. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $10.00 target price (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.71.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES opened at $10.45 on Wednesday. AES has a 12 month low of $9.57 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.25, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $11.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.24.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.74%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.04%.

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.