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

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 46,458 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 171% compared to the typical volume of 17,142 call options.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock traded up $2.18 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $13.25. The company had a trading volume of 70,101,975 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,605,510. AES has a 52-week low of $9.46 and a 52-week high of $20.30. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $10.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $9.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.95.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 10.67%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AES. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in AES in the 4th quarter worth approximately $121,627,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in AES by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $632,865,000 after acquiring an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in AES by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in AES by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $205,261,000 after purchasing an additional 6,238,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sound Shore Management Inc. CT purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter valued at $69,083,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of several recent research reports. HSBC reduced their target price on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Argus restated a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $24.22.

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.