Beck Bode LLC Has $12.39 Million Stock Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Beck Bode LLC grew its position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 7.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 174,255 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,569 shares during the quarter. Ameren accounts for 2.5% of Beck Bode LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Beck Bode LLC owned approximately 0.07% of Ameren worth $12,391,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in Ameren by 26.4% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 68,667 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,883,000 after purchasing an additional 14,323 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its holdings in Ameren by 1.4% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 9,803 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $697,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its position in Ameren by 181.0% during the second quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 126,289 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,980,000 after purchasing an additional 81,345 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI bought a new position in Ameren in the second quarter valued at approximately $545,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Ameren by 10.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 979,094 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $69,622,000 after purchasing an additional 91,182 shares during the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AEE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho raised Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a report on Monday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Barclays upgraded shares of Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $73.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total transaction of $131,923.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AEE opened at $85.02 on Wednesday. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $67.03 and a 12-month high of $85.83. The business has a 50 day moving average of $80.27 and a 200-day moving average of $75.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market cap of $22.67 billion, a PE ratio of 19.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.45.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is 61.61%.

Ameren Profile

Ameren Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, and Ameren Transmission. It engages in the rate-regulated electric generation, transmission, and distribution activities; and rate-regulated natural gas distribution business.