Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $113.30.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AEE. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp downgraded Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Argus upgraded Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE AEE opened at $113.17 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $104.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $102.80. 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 has a twelve month low of $91.77 and a twelve month high of $113.44. The stock has a market cap of $31.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.15, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.57.

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

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In related news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the 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 sale, the insider 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameren

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AEE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Ameren by 68.6% in the third 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 last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd raised its holdings in Ameren by 104,698.0% in the 3rd quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,370,758 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $143,091,000 after buying an additional 1,369,450 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Ameren by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,582,578 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,417,351,000 after buying an additional 1,268,457 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Ameren by 6,051.1% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 932,017 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,071,000 after buying an additional 916,865 shares during the period. Finally, Homestead Advisers Corp bought a new stake in Ameren during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $76,614,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.