Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $113.30.

AEE has been the topic of several analyst reports. KeyCorp cut Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Mizuho set a $117.00 price target on shares of Ameren in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Argus raised Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Ameren from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE AEE opened at $113.17 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $31.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.15, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Ameren has a twelve month low of $91.77 and a twelve month high of $113.44. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $102.80.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.69% and a net margin of 16.55%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.77 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In related news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total transaction of $673,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,002,673.60. This represents a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allstate Corp purchased a new position in Ameren in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,050,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 4.7% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,787,278 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $186,556,000 after purchasing an additional 79,763 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ameren in the third quarter worth approximately $1,097,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Ameren by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 255,152 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,505,000 after buying an additional 2,750 shares during the period. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Ameren during the 2nd quarter valued at $13,305,000. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ameren Company Profile

Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE) is an integrated energy company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that provides electric and natural gas delivery and related services in portions of Missouri and Illinois. The company operates regulated utility businesses that serve a broad mix of residential, commercial and industrial customers, and it participates in wholesale energy markets and transmission operations that support reliable service across its service territories.

Ameren’s core activities include generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, distribution of natural gas, and the provision of customer energy solutions such as demand-side management and energy efficiency programs.