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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 55,003 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 298% compared to the average daily volume of 13,809 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES during the first quarter worth $40,000. Blue Barn Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter valued at about $159,000. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter valued at about $499,000. Boxwood Ventures Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter valued at about $326,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in AES by 3.7% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,134,771 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $88,614,000 after acquiring an additional 255,512 shares during the last quarter. 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 analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. 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 research note on Thursday, April 24th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $10.00 target price (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $13.71.

AES Stock Up 3.0%

Shares of NYSE AES traded up $0.32 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $11.14. 14,686,779 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,727,573. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $11.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.07. AES has a one year low of $9.57 and a one year high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. AES's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that AES will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.32%. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.04%.

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.