Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $87.80.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AEE. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Ameren in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Ameren in a research report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho raised Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Argus raised Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,640,758.08. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AEE. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ameren by 493.0% in the first quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after acquiring an additional 18,064 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Ameren by 703.6% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 129,346 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,566,000 after buying an additional 113,250 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Ameren by 392.0% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,382,000 after buying an additional 15,484 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in Ameren by 137.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 100,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,407,000 after buying an additional 57,923 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new position in Ameren in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,632,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Price Performance

Shares of Ameren stock opened at $89.20 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. Ameren has a 1-year low of $67.03 and a 1-year high of $89.21. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $85.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.51, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.45.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 61.61%.

Ameren Company Profile

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.