CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC Buys 178 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 0.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 393,697 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC owned approximately 0.15% of Ameren worth $35,134,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Ameren by 59.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,631,580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $230,158,000 after purchasing an additional 984,879 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 42.1% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,469,037 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,950,000 after buying an additional 434,889 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 51.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,064,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,134,000 after buying an additional 362,772 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,149,221,000 after buying an additional 334,752 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter worth approximately $19,367,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AEE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.70.

Ameren Stock Up 1.1 %

Ameren stock opened at $99.71 on Monday. Ameren Co. has a twelve month low of $69.39 and a twelve month high of $104.10. The business has a fifty day moving average of $97.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.08. The firm has a market cap of $26.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is a boost 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 2.85%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.27, for a total value of $266,901.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,424,423.65. This trade represents a 15.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.37, for a total transaction of $557,535.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,344 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,393,781.28. This trade represents a 11.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,959 shares of company stock worth $1,316,712 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

About Ameren

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.