Brokerages Set Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) PT at $80.10

Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the ten brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $81.00.

AEE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Barclays raised Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $73.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ameren from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th.

Insider Activity at Ameren

In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total transaction of $131,923.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at $3,640,758.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total transaction of $131,923.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at $3,640,758.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Rafael Flores sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.29, for a total value of $106,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $981,520.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ameren

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Ameren by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,931,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,696,022,000 after purchasing an additional 4,593,638 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP raised its stake in Ameren by 204.3% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 3,827,897 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $283,111,000 after buying an additional 2,569,897 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ameren by 106.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,498,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $177,644,000 after buying an additional 1,286,162 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. bought a new stake in Ameren during the fourth quarter valued at $60,445,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ameren by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,092,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,447,516,000 after acquiring an additional 802,714 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ameren Stock Up 0.9 %

Ameren stock opened at $83.29 on Wednesday. Ameren has a twelve month low of $67.03 and a twelve month high of $84.40. The stock has a market cap of $22.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.45. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $77.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $74.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is 61.61%.

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.