Victory Capital Management Inc. Purchases 6,924 Shares of Ameren Corporation $AEE

Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 302,774 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,924 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned 0.11% of Ameren worth $31,604,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AEE. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Ameren in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Ameren by 6,040.0% during the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ameren by 728.9% in the 2nd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 315 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Ameren by 30.9% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the period. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Ameren in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $54,000. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on AEE. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price objective on shares of Ameren in a report on Friday, February 20th. KeyCorp downgraded Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Argus upgraded Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Mizuho set a $117.00 price target on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.30.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total transaction of $673,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at $20,002,673.60. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.42% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ameren Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE AEE opened at $111.55 on Monday. Ameren Corporation has a 1-year low of $91.77 and a 1-year high of $113.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The business’s 50 day moving average is $105.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $103.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.85, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.56.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.69 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.69% and a net margin of 16.55%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.77 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Ameren Corporation will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 56.07%.

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.