Squarepoint Ops LLC Purchases 21,794 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 12.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 195,903 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 21,794 shares during the quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $13,931,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AEE. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 4,593,638 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP grew 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 worth $283,111,000 after buying an additional 2,569,897 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ameren during the fourth quarter worth $60,445,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 worth $2,447,516,000 after buying an additional 802,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 192.6% during the second quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,103,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $78,475,000 after buying an additional 726,404 shares during the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ameren

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ameren Price Performance

AEE stock opened at $86.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $23.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.88, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $67.03 and a 12-month high of $87.10. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $81.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.79.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced 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. Ameren had a net margin of 16.28% and a return on equity of 10.20%. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 61.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Argus raised shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Mizuho raised shares of Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, September 16th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Ameren in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price target on the stock. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Ameren in a report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.33.

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.