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

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors purchased 23,067 call options on the company. This is an increase of 82% compared to the average volume of 12,676 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its holdings in shares of AES by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 83,328 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,034,000 after purchasing an additional 2,265 shares in the last quarter. Seed Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in AES by 45.6% in the 1st quarter. Seed Wealth Management Inc. now owns 21,355 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $265,000 after buying an additional 6,690 shares during the last quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. lifted its stake in AES by 37.4% during the 1st quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 291,418 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,619,000 after acquiring an additional 79,355 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 65.3% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 163,526 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,031,000 after acquiring an additional 64,577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 15.9% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 144,881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,799,000 after purchasing an additional 19,866 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna cut their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.67.

AES Stock Down 5.2 %

AES traded down $0.53 during trading on Monday, reaching $9.65. The stock had a trading volume of 6,496,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,348,285. AES has a one year low of $9.58 and a one year high of $22.21. The company has a market capitalization of $6.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $11.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.84.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that AES will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.29%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

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.