Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Ameren (NYSE:AEE)

Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 2,984 call options on the company. This is an increase of 2,268% compared to the typical daily volume of 126 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on AEE shares. Mizuho set a $117.00 target price on Ameren in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays lowered their price target on Ameren from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 15th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Ameren from $112.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp lowered Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ameren has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $111.30.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total transaction of $673,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,002,673.60. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AEE. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its stake in Ameren by 70.9% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 285.5% in the third quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 266 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. acquired a new position in Ameren in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Garton & Associates Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ameren in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 6,040.0% in the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Stock Up 1.3%

AEE stock opened at $109.73 on Friday. Ameren has a one year low of $91.77 and a one year high of $112.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.66. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $102.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $102.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.51, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.57.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.69% and a net margin of 16.55%.The company had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.08%.

About Ameren

Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE) is an integrated energy company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that provides electric and natural gas delivery and related services in portions of Missouri and Illinois. The company operates regulated utility businesses that serve a broad mix of residential, commercial and industrial customers, and it participates in wholesale energy markets and transmission operations that support reliable service across its service territories.

Ameren’s core activities include generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, distribution of natural gas, and the provision of customer energy solutions such as demand-side management and energy efficiency programs.