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

Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the thirteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $113.30.

AEE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $116.00 price objective on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Ameren from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Wall Street Zen cut Ameren from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Mizuho set a $117.00 price target on Ameren in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of AEE stock opened at $111.55 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 firm has a market cap of $30.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.56. Ameren has a 52 week low of $91.77 and a 52 week high of $113.64. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $105.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $103.19.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released 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 net margin of 16.55% and a return on equity of 10.69%. The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ameren will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other 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 value of $673,400.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 193,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,002,673.60. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Ameren by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 7,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $777,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 1.4% in the second quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 7,105 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $682,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Kentucky Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Trust Co now owns 14,759 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Segment Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ameren by 3.6% in the third quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Ameren by 70.9% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.