Vanguard Group Inc. Reduces Position in Ameren Corporation $AEE

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 1.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 35,149,610 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 432,968 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 0.13% of Ameren worth $3,668,916,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AEE. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Ameren by 70.9% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Ameren in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Ameren by 6,040.0% in the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 302 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ameren by 728.9% during the 2nd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 315 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in Ameren by 49.0% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ameren

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 transaction, the insider directly owned 193,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,002,673.60. This represents a 3.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ameren Trading Down 2.0%

AEE opened at $108.38 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market cap of $29.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.57. Ameren Corporation has a 12 month low of $91.77 and a 12 month high of $112.65. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $102.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $102.34.

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

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 53.08%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AEE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Argus raised shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho set a $117.00 price target on Ameren in a research report on Friday, February 13th. KeyCorp lowered Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Ameren from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $111.30.

Ameren 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.