Spire Wealth Management Sells 409 Shares of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE)

Spire Wealth Management lessened its holdings in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 7.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,891 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 409 shares during the quarter. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Ameren were worth $491,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in Ameren by 1,732.4% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,068,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $273,527,000 after acquiring an additional 2,901,047 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 96.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,170,709 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $460,917,000 after purchasing an additional 2,539,129 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,038,754 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,518,835,000 after purchasing an additional 2,439,811 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Ameren by 116.0% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,357,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $210,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,266,051 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Ameren by 76.7% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,134,288 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $190,250,000 after buying an additional 926,126 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AEE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $91.00 to $100.00 in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp raised shares of Ameren from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $103.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.64.

Ameren Stock Performance

AEE opened at $95.33 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.49. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $96.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $95.85. Ameren Corporation has a 1 year low of $70.15 and a 1 year high of $104.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.01). Ameren had a net margin of 15.31% and a return on equity of 10.40%. The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Ameren Corporation will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 10th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.98%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.97%.

Ameren Profile

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 business.