Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $113.4545.

AEE has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Ameren from $112.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research note on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price target on Ameren in a research note on Friday, February 20th.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of Ameren stock opened at $107.78 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $107.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.02. Ameren has a 1-year low of $91.77 and a 1-year high of $113.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The company has a market cap of $29.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.15, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.56.

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 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 business had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ameren will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total transaction of $673,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,002,673.60. This trade represents a 3.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ameren

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,661,019 shares during the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Ameren by 104,698.0% in the 3rd quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,370,758 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $143,091,000 after buying an additional 1,369,450 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 6,051.1% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 932,017 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,071,000 after acquiring an additional 916,865 shares in the last quarter. Homestead Advisers Corp bought a new position in shares of Ameren in the third quarter valued at approximately $76,614,000. Finally, Clark Capital Management Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ameren during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $66,631,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

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.