AES Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 8,958 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 57% compared to the average daily volume of 5,718 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.57.

AES Price Performance

AES traded down $1.42 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $15.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 9,757,212 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,189,363. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. AES has a 12 month low of $14.69 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $10.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.61 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $17.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.29.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that AES will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AES. CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in AES in the 3rd quarter valued at $347,000. Summit Global Investments acquired a new stake in AES in the 3rd quarter valued at $816,000. Portside Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in AES by 10.1% in the 3rd quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 56,367 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,131,000 after acquiring an additional 5,160 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in AES by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 830,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,667,000 after acquiring an additional 28,043 shares during the period. Finally, Jackson Square Capital LLC grew its stake in AES by 41.2% in the 3rd quarter. Jackson Square Capital LLC now owns 39,623 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $795,000 after acquiring an additional 11,570 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Company Profile

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.