Strs Ohio Invests $1.82 Million in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE – Get Rating) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 22,568 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,817,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ameren by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,978,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,810,808,000 after buying an additional 681,658 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Ameren by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,076,973 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,904,516,000 after buying an additional 394,677 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Ameren by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,088,220 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,273,012,000 after buying an additional 198,226 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Ameren by 72.3% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,018,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $724,594,000 after buying an additional 3,363,979 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of Ameren by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 6,383,265 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $576,792,000 after buying an additional 226,985 shares during the period. 78.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Ameren

In other news, Chairman Warner L. Baxter sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.32, for a total transaction of $4,516,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 217,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,680,095.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE AEE opened at $90.62 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.41. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $87.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $87.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.79. Ameren Co. has a 52 week low of $73.28 and a 52 week high of $99.20.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 3rd. The utilities provider reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.02. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.33% and a net margin of 13.90%. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 27.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 7th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 6th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.15%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AEE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Ameren from $111.00 to $93.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 18th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on Ameren from $99.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Monday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Ameren from $86.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 15th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Ameren from $93.00 to $101.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ameren from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ameren currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.10.

About Ameren

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Ameren Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. It operates through four segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, and Ameren Transmission. The company engages in the rate-regulated electric generation, transmission, and distribution activities; and rate-regulated natural gas distribution and transmission businesses.