Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

AEE has been the topic of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price target on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $116.00 target price on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Argus upgraded shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.30.

Ameren Price Performance

Ameren stock opened at $106.20 on Friday. 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 market capitalization of $29.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $107.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $103.84. Ameren has a 1 year low of $91.77 and a 1 year high of $113.93.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.77 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ameren

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the insider owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at $20,002,673.60. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ameren

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,661,019 shares during the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd lifted its stake in Ameren by 104,698.0% during the third quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,370,758 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $143,091,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369,450 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Ameren by 6,051.1% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 932,017 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,071,000 after purchasing an additional 916,865 shares during the last quarter. Homestead Advisers Corp acquired a new position in Ameren in the third quarter valued at approximately $76,614,000. Finally, Clark Capital Management Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ameren in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $66,631,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

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.