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

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders bought 39,573 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 116% compared to the typical daily volume of 18,293 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AES. Barclays lifted their target price on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised AES from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.67.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE AES opened at $15.38 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.95 billion, a PE ratio of 10.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.93. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.74. AES has a 1-year low of $9.46 and a 1-year high of $20.25.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were issued a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. AES’s payout ratio is 49.30%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AES

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 33.5% in the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 20,904 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 26,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $327,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 94,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,176,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the period. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 24,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $307,000 after acquiring an additional 1,173 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

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.