Empirical Finance LLC Sells 563 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Empirical Finance LLC reduced its stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 563 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $618,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 buying an additional 802,714 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Ameren by 25.0% during 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 period. Putnam Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,112,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $369,849,000 after purchasing an additional 156,733 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP grew its position in Ameren by 204.3% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 3,827,897 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $283,111,000 after purchasing an additional 2,569,897 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Ameren by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,877,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $212,836,000 after purchasing an additional 23,967 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on AEE. Barclays raised shares of Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. StockNews.com raised Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group began coverage on Ameren in a report on Friday, July 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $87.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Ameren from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $81.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of Ameren stock opened at $82.51 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $77.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $74.02. Ameren Co. has a 12 month low of $67.03 and a 12 month high of $84.40.

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

Ameren Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.25%. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 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.