Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Given New $117.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) had its price objective lowered by Morgan Stanley from $119.00 to $117.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

AEE has been the subject of several other research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays increased their target price on Ameren from $104.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Ameren in a research report on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $126.00 target price for the company. UBS Group increased their target price on Ameren from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $117.31.

Ameren Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE AEE opened at $110.12 on Tuesday. Ameren has a fifty-two week low of $93.27 and a fifty-two week high of $115.53. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $105.44. The stock has a market cap of $30.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.52.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Ameren will post 5.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is 56.07%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $673,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 193,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,002,673.60. This trade represents a 3.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AEE. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,645,555 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,559,565,000 after purchasing an additional 495,945 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,885,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,586,324,000 after purchasing an additional 362,052 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,503,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,448,342,000 after purchasing an additional 457,876 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,283,529 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $655,892,000 after purchasing an additional 60,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,290,191 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $528,278,000 after purchasing an additional 149,952 shares in the last quarter. 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.