Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Stock Price Expected to Rise, BMO Capital Markets Analyst Says

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) had its price objective raised by stock analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $112.00 to $120.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price points to a potential upside of 9.51% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently commented on AEE. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $116.00 target price on shares of Ameren in a report on Friday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Ameren from $112.00 to $111.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $108.00 price target on shares of Ameren in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ameren presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $110.80.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of AEE stock opened at $109.58 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $101.49 and a 200-day moving average of $102.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market cap of $29.64 billion, a PE ratio of 20.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.57. Ameren has a one year low of $91.77 and a one year high of $110.50.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.69 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 16.55% and a return on equity of 10.90%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total transaction of $673,400.00. Following the sale, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameren

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEE. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,645,555 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,559,565,000 after buying an additional 495,945 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Ameren by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,045,845 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,466,105,000 after acquiring an additional 328,401 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ameren by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,242,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $692,794,000 after acquiring an additional 192,808 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ameren by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,283,529 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $655,892,000 after purchasing an additional 60,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Ameren by 1.0% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,140,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $536,538,000 after buying an additional 49,282 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

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.