Ameriprise Financial Inc. Purchases 60,519 Shares of Ameren Corporation $AEE

Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 1.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,283,529 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 60,519 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned about 2.32% of Ameren worth $655,892,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AEE. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Ameren by 25.1% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 116,617 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,172,000 after buying an additional 23,402 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ameren by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 492,979 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,346,000 after buying an additional 222,886 shares during the last quarter. Credit Agricole S A purchased a new stake in shares of Ameren during the third quarter valued at approximately $8,298,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Ameren by 1.9% during the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 212,401 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $22,170,000 after acquiring an additional 3,861 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in Ameren by 46.7% during the third quarter. Amundi now owns 469,354 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,226,000 after acquiring an additional 149,502 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of AEE stock opened at $112.08 on Monday. The stock 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $106.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $103.53. Ameren Corporation has a 1 year low of $91.77 and a 1 year high of $113.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.46.

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

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 56.07%.

Insider Activity at Ameren

In other news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’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 value of $673,400.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AEE. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price objective on Ameren in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Mizuho set a $117.00 price target on shares of Ameren in a research report on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $112.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.30.

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.