Legal & General Group Plc Acquires New Stake in Ameren Corporation $AEE

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,885,661 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $213,155,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ameren by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,645,555 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,559,565,000 after buying an additional 495,945 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Ameren in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,918,526,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in 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 valued at $1,586,324,000 after acquiring an additional 362,052 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Ameren by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,503,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,448,342,000 after acquiring an additional 457,876 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Ameren by 3.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,223,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $597,673,000 after purchasing an additional 179,137 shares during the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Theresa A. Shaw sold 325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.93, for a total transaction of $35,402.25. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 32,340 shares in the company, valued at $3,522,796.20. This trade represents a 0.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.96, for a total transaction of $708,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 199,689 shares in the company, valued at $21,758,113.44. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AEE has been the subject of a number of research reports. BTIG Research set a $126.00 target price on shares of Ameren in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ameren from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. KeyCorp raised shares of Ameren from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $122.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $122.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Ameren from $124.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ameren has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.42.

Ameren Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of AEE stock opened at $107.79 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.53. Ameren Corporation has a 52-week low of $96.57 and a 52-week high of $118.32. The company has a market capitalization of $29.84 billion, a PE ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.47. The business’s fifty day moving average is $110.92 and its 200 day moving average is $110.31.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.05. Ameren had a net margin of 17.86% and a return on equity of 10.95%. The business had revenue of $2.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.01 earnings per share. Ameren’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. Ameren has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ameren Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.82%.

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.