Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Ameren (NYSE:AEE)

Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 2,984 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 2,268% compared to the average volume of 126 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEE. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 495,945 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Ameren by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,503,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,448,342,000 after purchasing an additional 457,876 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ameren by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,242,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $692,794,000 after purchasing an additional 192,808 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Ameren by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,283,529 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $655,892,000 after purchasing an additional 60,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Ameren by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,140,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $536,538,000 after buying an additional 49,282 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE:AEE opened at $108.38 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $102.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market cap of $29.32 billion, a PE ratio of 20.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.57. Ameren has a fifty-two week low of $91.77 and a fifty-two week high of $112.65.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 53.08%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research note on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $108.00 price objective on shares of Ameren in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Mizuho set a $117.00 price objective on shares of Ameren in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $111.30.

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.