Brokerages Set Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) PT at $113.45

Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $113.4545.

Several analysts have issued reports on AEE shares. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $116.00 price target on shares of Ameren in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho set a $117.00 target price on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp downgraded Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Ameren from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,002,673.60. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameren

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ameren by 22.9% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 8,077 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $811,000 after buying an additional 1,503 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 19.8% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,255 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $628,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 42.2% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 22,802 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,289,000 after acquiring an additional 6,772 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 89.4% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,419,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $232,393,000 after acquiring an additional 1,141,978 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Ameren by 31.9% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 129,970 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,482,000 after acquiring an additional 31,405 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Stock Up 0.9%

AEE opened at $109.69 on Thursday. Ameren has a 1-year low of $91.77 and a 1-year high of $113.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50 day moving average of $108.22 and a 200-day moving average of $104.24.

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

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Ameren’s payout ratio is 56.07%.

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.