Great Lakes Advisors LLC Invests $5.26 Million in Ameren Corporation $AEE

Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 46,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,256,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AEE. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Ameren by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,645,555 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,559,565,000 after purchasing an additional 495,945 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Ameren during the second quarter valued at about $2,918,526,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,885,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,586,324,000 after buying an additional 362,052 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 3.3% during 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 buying an additional 457,876 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 3.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,223,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $597,673,000 after buying an additional 179,137 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AEE. Barclays boosted their target price on Ameren from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. KeyCorp raised Ameren from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $122.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Ameren from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ameren from $126.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Ameren from $121.00 to $119.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.75.

Ameren Stock Performance

Ameren stock opened at $109.28 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The firm has a market cap of $30.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.47. Ameren Corporation has a 1-year low of $96.57 and a 1-year high of $118.32. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $111.10 and a 200-day moving average of $110.19.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.27 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.95% and a net margin of 17.86%.Ameren’s revenue was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. Ameren has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Ameren Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Ameren’s payout ratio is 52.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.96, for a total value of $708,240.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 199,689 shares in the company, valued at $21,758,113.44. The trade was a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Theresa A. Shaw sold 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.93, for a total transaction of $35,402.25. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 32,340 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,522,796.20. The trade was a 0.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ameren Company Profile

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.