Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $85.33.

A number of research firms have recently commented on AEE. Bank of America raised their target price on Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays upgraded shares of Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $73.00 to $77.00 in a report on Thursday, May 30th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, July 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, September 16th.

Insider Activity

In other Ameren 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 value of $131,923.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Ameren by 25.0% in the first 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 boosted its stake in shares of Ameren by 204.3% in the 1st 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 grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 106.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,498,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $177,644,000 after acquiring an additional 1,286,162 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. purchased a new stake in Ameren during the fourth quarter valued at $60,445,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ameren by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,092,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,447,516,000 after acquiring an additional 802,714 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE:AEE opened at $86.06 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $81.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.72. The stock has a market cap of $22.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.45. Ameren has a twelve month low of $67.03 and a twelve month high of $87.10.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. Ameren had a net margin of 16.28% and a return on equity of 10.20%. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Ameren’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Ameren will post 4.62 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date 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.