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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 49,750 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 229% compared to the average daily volume of 15,139 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.22.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES traded up $0.39 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $10.90. The company had a trading volume of 17,196,632 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,612,802. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a 52 week low of $9.46 and a 52 week high of $20.63. The firm has a market cap of $7.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.57, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $10.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.56.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 190.3% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in shares of AES by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares during the period. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AES during the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. WR Wealth Planners LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 93.3% during the 4th quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES during the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. 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.