Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on AES (NYSE:AES)

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES – Get Rating) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Traders bought 2,848 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 72% compared to the typical volume of 1,658 call options.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $21.16 on Tuesday. AES has a 52-week low of $18.62 and a 52-week high of $29.89. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $23.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $25.72. The company has a market capitalization of $14.16 billion, a P/E ratio of -25.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.23, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.13.

AES (NYSE:AES – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.02). AES had a positive return on equity of 38.46% and a negative net margin of 3.59%. The firm had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.21 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that AES will post 1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1659 per share. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 28th. AES’s payout ratio is -80.49%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of AES by 28.8% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,572,888 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,876,000 after purchasing an additional 351,622 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its position in shares of AES by 78.3% during the 1st quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 359,690 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,661,000 after purchasing an additional 157,960 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 2,315.2% during the 1st quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,870,758 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $202,274,000 after purchasing an additional 4,669,090 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC increased its holdings in AES by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 388,160 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,347,000 after acquiring an additional 3,822 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in AES by 90.0% in the 1st quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 54,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,309,000 after acquiring an additional 25,734 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on AES. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, March 6th. Wolfe Research lowered AES from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, April 17th. TheStreet lowered AES from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Monday, February 27th. UBS Group reduced their target price on AES from $30.00 to $27.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on AES from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.30.

About AES

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The AES Corp. engages in the provision of power generation and utility services through its renewable and thermal generation facilities and distribution businesses. It operates through the following segments: U.S. and Utilities Strategic Business Unit (SBU), South America SBU, MCAC SBU, Eurasia SBU. The U.S.