AES Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:AES)

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 46,458 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 171% compared to the average volume of 17,142 call options.

Institutional Trading of AES

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 19.5% during the fourth 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. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 35.7% during 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. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd raised its holdings in shares of AES by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 27,518,952 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $341,785,000 after purchasing an additional 4,930,252 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 30.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $258,224,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $216,862,000 after purchasing an additional 381,761 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, HSBC reduced their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.22.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock traded up $1.83 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $12.90. 29,737,067 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,416,263. AES has a 12 month low of $9.46 and a 12 month high of $20.30. The company has a market cap of $9.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.02, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.95. The company's 50 day moving average price is $10.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.84.

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

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.

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