Heartland Bank & Trust Co Purchases 680 Shares of Ameren Corporation $AEE

Heartland Bank & Trust Co raised its position in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 15.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 680 shares during the quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Ameren were worth $497,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Ameren by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,314,121 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,445,138,000 after buying an additional 979,928 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Ameren by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 28,404,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,851,821,000 after buying an additional 1,355,848 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Ameren by 16.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,658,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $467,741,000 after buying an additional 646,000 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Ameren by 51.7% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,576,385 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $359,069,000 after buying an additional 1,218,509 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Ameren by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,825,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $283,636,000 after buying an additional 151,808 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on AEE shares. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Ameren from $104.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Ameren from $105.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $91.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Finally, KeyCorp set a $104.00 price target on shares of Ameren and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ameren currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.75.

Ameren Trading Down 0.1%

AEE opened at $103.55 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.56. Ameren Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $85.27 and a fifty-two week high of $105.67. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $101.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $98.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.76, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.49.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 14.55% and a return on equity of 10.38%. Ameren’s revenue was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 earnings per share. Ameren has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.850-5.050 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ameren Corporation will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 9th. Ameren’s payout ratio is 62.42%.

Insider Activity at Ameren

In other news, SVP Gwendolyn G. Mizell sold 1,000 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.79, for a total transaction of $101,790.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 9,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $929,240.91. The trade was a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

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.