Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Receives $89.00 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $89.00.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AEE. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ameren from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho raised Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Ameren in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $97.00 target price for the company. Argus upgraded shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ameren from $88.00 to $86.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, CFO Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.15, for a total value of $598,975.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 205,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,906,507.65. The trade was a 3.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AEE. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Ameren by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,149,221,000 after purchasing an additional 334,752 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,672,164 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $581,661,000 after purchasing an additional 127,287 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,561,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $398,992,000 after buying an additional 39,300 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Ameren by 59.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,631,580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $230,158,000 after acquiring an additional 984,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Ameren by 106.1% during the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ameren Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE AEE opened at $91.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.60, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.48. The business’s fifty day moving average is $89.61 and its 200-day moving average is $81.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.41. Ameren has a one year low of $67.03 and a one year high of $95.69.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 63.06%.

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.