Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Director Sells $266,901.32 in Stock

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.27, for a total transaction of $266,901.32. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 14,495 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,424,423.65. The trade was a 15.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Ameren Stock Up 1.3 %

AEE stock opened at $98.52 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $26.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.29, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. Ameren Co. has a 12 month low of $69.39 and a 12 month high of $100.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $92.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $89.11.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.06). Ameren had a net margin of 15.51% and a return on equity of 10.34%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.88%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is presently 60.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AEE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lowered shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $92.70.

Institutional Trading of Ameren

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 1,732.4% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,068,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $273,527,000 after buying an additional 2,901,047 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 96.5% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,170,709 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $460,917,000 after buying an additional 2,539,129 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 16.7% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,038,754 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,518,835,000 after buying an additional 2,439,811 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 116.0% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,357,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $210,181,000 after buying an additional 1,266,051 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 8,645.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,160,998 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,015,410,000 after buying an additional 1,147,723 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Company 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.