Royal Bank Of Canada Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Stock Price

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) had its target price lowered by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $114.00 to $107.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector perform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s price objective points to a potential upside of 8.36% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on AEE. Barclays upped their price target on Ameren from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ameren from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. KeyCorp raised shares of Ameren from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $122.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Ameren from $121.00 to $119.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $120.17.

Ameren Price Performance

Shares of AEE stock opened at $98.75 on Friday. Ameren has a fifty-two week low of $96.57 and a fifty-two week high of $118.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.44, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.46. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $107.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $109.47.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.05. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.95% and a net margin of 17.86%.The business had revenue of $2.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Ameren has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ameren will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.96, for a total value of $708,240.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 199,689 shares in the company, valued at $21,758,113.44. This trade represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Rafael Flores sold 248 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.53, for a total transaction of $26,171.44. Following the sale, the director owned 13,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,465,600.64. This represents a 1.75% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 7,073 shares of company stock valued at $769,814. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ameren

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Ameren during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,918,526,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,885,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,586,324,000 after purchasing an additional 362,052 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Ameren by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,377,156 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $591,056,000 after buying an additional 553,164 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in Ameren in the 2nd quarter valued at $578,254,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Ameren by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,758,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $303,227,000 after buying an additional 18,526 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

About Ameren

Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) is a regulated electric and natural gas utility holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Through its operating companies, Ameren provides energy generation, transmission, distribution and related services to customers in Missouri and Illinois.

Ameren Missouri operates an integrated electric utility serving communities across Missouri and also provides natural gas distribution services in parts of the state. Ameren Illinois operates electric and natural gas distribution businesses serving customers throughout much of Illinois.