Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Shares Sold by Signaturefd LLC

Signaturefd LLC trimmed its holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 3.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,151 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 216 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $538,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AEE. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Ameren by 25.0% in the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 4,593,638 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Ameren by 106.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,498,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $177,644,000 after buying an additional 1,286,162 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in 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 buying an additional 802,714 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd lifted its stake in Ameren by 192.6% during the second quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,103,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $78,475,000 after buying an additional 726,404 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at $3,640,758.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:AEE opened at $87.80 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $85.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $77.89. Ameren Co. has a 52 week low of $67.03 and a 52 week high of $89.54. The company has a market capitalization of $23.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.45. 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 data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.04. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

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 dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.05%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $91.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. UBS Group started 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. Argus raised shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target 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, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ameren currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.80.

Ameren 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.