Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Takes $206,000 Position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,352 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of 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 raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 2,569,897 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased 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 buying an additional 1,286,162 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased 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 buying an additional 1,147,723 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ameren by 2.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 802,714 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $3,640,758.08. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on AEE. Argus raised Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group began coverage on Ameren in a research note on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Ameren in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Mizuho raised Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a 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 assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.80.

Ameren Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE:AEE opened at $87.80 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.41 billion, a PE ratio of 20.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $85.36 and a 200-day moving average of $78.06. Ameren Co. has a 52 week low of $67.03 and a 52 week high of $89.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors 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 3.05%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.61%.

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.