Raymond James & Associates Has $9.23 Million Stock Position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Raymond James & Associates decreased its stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE – Get Rating) by 9.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 103,839 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 10,230 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Ameren were worth $9,233,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. InterOcean Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in Ameren by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC now owns 4,422 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $393,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ameren in the 4th quarter worth about $55,000. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in Ameren by 130.7% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 312,866 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,820,000 after acquiring an additional 177,251 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its stake in Ameren by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 1,637,676 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $145,622,000 after acquiring an additional 30,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Analysts LLC lifted its stake in Ameren by 3,800.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 1,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,406 shares in the last quarter. 78.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, SVP Fadi M. Diya sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.41, for a total value of $422,050.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 94,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,979,530.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 3,660 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.40, for a total transaction of $305,244.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 36,692 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,060,112.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Fadi M. Diya sold 5,000 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.41, for a total value of $422,050.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 94,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,979,530.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 63,509 shares of company stock valued at $5,221,792 in the last 90 days. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AEE shares. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Ameren from $91.00 to $87.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Guggenheim downgraded Ameren from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ameren from $95.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Monday, May 8th. StockNews.com began coverage on Ameren in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $95.00.

Ameren Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of AEE stock opened at $83.36 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.75. Ameren Co. has a twelve month low of $73.28 and a twelve month high of $97.53. The company has a market capitalization of $21.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.99, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.43.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.95 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.41% and a net margin of 13.34%. The company’s revenue was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 14th will be issued a $0.63 dividend. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 13th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 60.43%.

Ameren Company Profile

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Ameren Corp. is a public utility holding company, which engages in the provision of electric and natural gas services. It operates through the following segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, Ameren Transmission, and Other. The Ameren Transmission segment consists of the aggregated electric transmission businesses of Ameren Illinois and Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois (ATXI).