Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Sets New 12-Month High at $85.80

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $85.80 and last traded at $85.64, with a volume of 266429 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $83.99.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Ameren in a research note on Friday, July 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $87.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho upgraded Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Ameren from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Barclays upgraded Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $73.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.70.

Ameren Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $22.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $80.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. Ameren’s payout ratio is 61.61%.

Insider Activity at Ameren

In related news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total transaction of $131,923.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ameren

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Ameren by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 898,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $65,007,000 after acquiring an additional 12,431 shares in the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ameren by 493.0% in the 1st quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after acquiring an additional 18,064 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC raised its holdings in Ameren by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,112,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $369,849,000 after acquiring an additional 156,733 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Ameren by 703.6% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 129,346 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,566,000 after acquiring an additional 113,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Ameren by 392.0% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,382,000 after acquiring an additional 15,484 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

About Ameren

Ameren Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, and Ameren Transmission. It engages in the rate-regulated electric generation, transmission, and distribution activities; and rate-regulated natural gas distribution business.