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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 8,958 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 57% compared to the average volume of 5,718 call options.

Institutional Trading of AES

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 92.4% in the 2nd quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in AES in the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 640 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 102.3% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Trading Down 9.7 %

NYSE AES opened at $14.71 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.46 billion, a PE ratio of 10.22 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $17.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. AES has a 12 month low of $14.68 and a 12 month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that AES will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.57.

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.