Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Shares Purchased by Park Avenue Securities LLC

Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 19.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,684 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 609 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $322,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ameren by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,092,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,447,516,000 after acquiring an additional 802,714 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Ameren by 25.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,931,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,696,022,000 after buying an additional 4,593,638 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 204.3% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 3,827,897 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $283,111,000 after buying an additional 2,569,897 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 0.8% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,877,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $212,836,000 after buying an additional 23,967 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Ameren by 106.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,498,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $177,644,000 after acquiring an additional 1,286,162 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of AEE stock opened at $86.45 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The company has a market cap of $23.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.01. Ameren Co. has a 52 week low of $67.03 and a 52 week high of $88.11.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.10%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total value of $131,923.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AEE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Ameren from $91.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Ameren from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.70.

Ameren Company Profile

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.