Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday.

AEE has been the topic of several other research reports. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $89.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Friday, July 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $101.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $87.00 to $82.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Ameren from $88.00 to $82.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ameren has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.56.

Ameren Stock Up 0.9 %

AEE stock opened at $79.41 on Friday. Ameren has a 52-week low of $73.28 and a 52-week high of $96.36. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.45.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.77 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 13.65% and a return on equity of 10.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.80 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ameren will post 4.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ameren

In other news, SVP Fadi M. Diya sold 36,940 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.37, for a total value of $3,042,747.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 57,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,750,772.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Michael L. Moehn sold 3,155 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.63, for a total transaction of $251,232.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 161,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,849,813.47. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Fadi M. Diya sold 36,940 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.37, for a total transaction of $3,042,747.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 57,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,750,772.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameren

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEE. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ameren by 100,874.2% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 74,273,572 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,604,406,000 after purchasing an additional 74,200,015 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Ameren by 133.8% during the 1st quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 4,990,519 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $431,131,000 after purchasing an additional 2,855,894 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ameren by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,824,707 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,051,453,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200,700 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Ameren by 53.7% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,174,582 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $282,284,000 after acquiring an additional 1,109,611 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Ameren by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,889,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,302,326,000 after acquiring an additional 1,029,187 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.77% of the company’s stock.

About Ameren

Ameren Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, and Ameren Transmission. It engages in the rate-regulated electric generation, transmission, and distribution activities; and rate-regulated natural gas distribution and transmission businesses.