Alliancebernstein L.P. Grows Stock Position in Ameren Corporation $AEE

Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,378,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 116,819 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned 1.25% of Ameren worth $352,601,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AEE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ameren by 3.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,582,578 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,417,351,000 after acquiring an additional 1,268,457 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,717,444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,317,423,000 after purchasing an additional 297,386 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,283,529 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $655,892,000 after purchasing an additional 60,519 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,140,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $536,538,000 after purchasing an additional 49,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 68.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,080,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $425,951,000 after purchasing an additional 1,661,019 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AEE. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ameren from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st. Mizuho set a $117.00 price objective on shares of Ameren in a report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price objective on shares of Ameren in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Argus raised shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Ameren from $112.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.30.

Ameren Price Performance

Ameren stock opened at $112.08 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $106.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $103.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.95, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Ameren Corporation has a 52-week low of $91.77 and a 52-week high of $113.64.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. Ameren had a net margin of 16.55% and a return on equity of 10.69%. The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.77 earnings per share. Ameren’s quarterly revenue was down 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ameren Corporation will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 56.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total value of $673,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at $20,002,673.60. This represents a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ameren Company Profile

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.