Shares of AES Corp (NYSE:AES) are 14.7% higher to trade at $15.10 this morning, after the Financial Times broke news that BlackRock (BLK)-owned Global Infrastructure Partners is in the final stages of talks to purchase the utility name. At an estimated $38 billion, this would become one of the biggest infrastructure acquisitions on record.
AES just notched a fresh year-to-date peak and is pacing for its best day since July 9. Now up 16.3% in 2025, shares have broken above recent resistance at the $14 region. Short interest has been on the rise, up 12.6% during the most recent reporting period. This accounts for 4.7% of the stock's available float.
Call traders have been moving in over the past 10 weeks. This is per AES' 50-day call/put volume ratio of 12.69 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) that sits in the 84th percentile of readings from the past 12 months.
Echoing this, short-term options traders were much more bullish than usual coming into today. The stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.49 sits in the 33rd percentile of readings from the past 12 months.
In the options pits, 46,000 calls have crossed the tape so far, 16 times the average intraday rate. Most popular is the weekly 10/3 16-strike call, where new positions are being bought to open.
Lastly, it's worth noting the security's
Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 95 out of 100 suggests it has tended to outperform volatility expectations over the past year.
