Forsta AP Fonden Acquires 5,100 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Forsta AP Fonden lifted its holdings in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 42,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,100 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Ameren were worth $3,735,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. 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 purchasing an additional 4,593,638 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP grew its stake in Ameren by 204.3% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in Ameren by 106.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,498,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $177,644,000 after acquiring an additional 1,286,162 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Ameren by 8,645.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,160,998 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,015,410,000 after acquiring an additional 1,147,723 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 worth $2,447,516,000 after acquiring an additional 802,714 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ameren Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of AEE stock opened at $86.04 on Wednesday. Ameren Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.03 and a fifty-two week high of $89.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $85.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $22.94 billion, a PE ratio of 19.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.45.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. Ameren’s revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is 60.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on AEE shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Ameren from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ameren from $91.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned 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 an average price target 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.