Park Avenue Securities LLC Boosts Stake in Ameren Corporation $AEE

Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 98.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,946 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,922 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $1,193,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its stake in Ameren by 285.5% during the third quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 266 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ameren by 6,040.0% during the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Ameren during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ameren during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Ameren in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $37,000. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on AEE. UBS Group upped their target price on Ameren from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $116.00 price objective on shares of Ameren in a report on Friday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.45.

Ameren Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of AEE stock opened at $107.78 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $107.91 and a 200 day moving average of $104.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.46. Ameren Corporation has a 1-year low of $91.77 and a 1-year high of $113.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.79 billion, a PE ratio of 20.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.56.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 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 analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ameren Corporation will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 56.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider 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 the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.