Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on AES (NYSE:AES)

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 67,840 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 247% compared to the average volume of 19,550 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Community Trust & Investment Co. raised its position in AES by 37.4% in the 1st quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 291,418 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,619,000 after buying an additional 79,355 shares during the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC bought a new position in AES in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,172,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in AES by 2.5% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 824,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,235,000 after purchasing an additional 20,109 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,270,543 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,780,000 after acquiring an additional 148,772 shares during the period. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 39.6% during the 1st quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 1,349,118 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,756,000 after acquiring an additional 382,843 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

AES opened at $12.74 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.72. AES has a 1 year low of $9.46 and a 1 year high of $20.30. The stock has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a PE ratio of 8.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%.The business’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st were issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 49.30%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Barclays lifted their price target on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded AES from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Susquehanna boosted their target price on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.67.

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.