Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Upgraded to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on AEE. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Ameren from $85.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Monday, October 9th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Ameren from $91.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Ameren from $101.00 to $94.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ameren from $94.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 16th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Ameren from $87.00 to $82.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.89.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of Ameren stock opened at $76.78 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $77.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.04. The company has a market capitalization of $20.19 billion, a PE ratio of 17.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Ameren has a 52 week low of $69.71 and a 52 week high of $92.43.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 9th. The utilities provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.80 by $0.07. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.67% and a net margin of 14.59%. The company had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. Ameren’s quarterly revenue was down 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Michael L. Moehn sold 3,155 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.63, for a total value of $251,232.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 161,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,849,813.47. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ameren

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 100,874.2% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 74,273,572 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,604,406,000 after buying an additional 74,200,015 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,978,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,810,808,000 after buying an additional 681,658 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,837,990 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,538,499,000 after buying an additional 56,202 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Ameren by 8.0% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,889,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,302,326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,029,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ameren by 22.9% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. 77.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.