Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE – Get Rating) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,849 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 341 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Ameren were worth $431,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ameren by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,090,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,504,369,000 after purchasing an additional 343,773 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Ameren by 1.9% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,076,973 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,904,516,000 after buying an additional 394,677 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Ameren by 0.6% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,625,960 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,500,321,000 after purchasing an additional 110,291 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Ameren by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,313,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,152,958,000 after purchasing an additional 225,354 shares during the period. Finally, Pictet Asset Management SA lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 4.8% in the third quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA now owns 3,985,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $321,008,000 after buying an additional 184,046 shares in the last quarter. 78.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AEE. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Ameren from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Guggenheim cut shares of Ameren from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $84.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Ameren from $89.00 to $84.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 21st. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Ameren in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.40.
Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren
In other news, Director Rafael Flores sold 1,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.15, for a total transaction of $163,685.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,172 shares in the company, valued at $1,220,917.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Ameren news, EVP Mark C. Lindgren sold 3,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.19, for a total value of $254,124.70. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 45,343 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,681,398.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Rafael Flores sold 1,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.15, for a total transaction of $163,685.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,172 shares in the company, valued at $1,220,917.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 63,509 shares of company stock worth $5,221,792 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.
Ameren Trading Up 0.9 %
NYSE AEE opened at $90.07 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $85.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.21. Ameren Co. has a 12 month low of $73.28 and a 12 month high of $99.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.43.
Ameren (NYSE:AEE – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 13.50% and a return on equity of 10.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 32.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.35 earnings per share for the current year.
Ameren Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th were paid a $0.63 dividend. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 14th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is currently 60.87%.
Ameren Company Profile
Ameren Corp. is a public utility holding company, which engages in the provision of electric and natural gas services. It operates through the following segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, Ameren Transmission, and Other. The Ameren Transmission segment consists of the aggregated electric transmission businesses of Ameren Illinois and Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois (ATXI).
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