Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Sells 215 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE – Get Rating) by 0.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 833,530 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 215 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Ameren were worth $74,124,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 245,889 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $21,864,000 after acquiring an additional 3,730 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,139 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 321 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in Ameren by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 4,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $420,000 after buying an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC lifted its position in Ameren by 4.5% in the third quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC now owns 14,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,148,000 after buying an additional 618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ameren by 0.7% in the third quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 51,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,182,000 after buying an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. 78.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, SVP Fadi M. Diya sold 5,000 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.41, for a total value of $422,050.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 94,533 shares in the company, valued at $7,979,530.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Ameren news, SVP Fadi M. Diya sold 5,000 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.41, for a total value of $422,050.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 94,533 shares in the company, valued at $7,979,530.53. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Warner L. Baxter sold 49,819 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $4,076,688.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 207,272 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,961,067.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 61,609 shares of company stock worth $5,058,107 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AEE. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ameren from $95.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Monday, May 8th. StockNews.com began coverage on Ameren in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Mizuho lowered their price target on Ameren from $91.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Ameren from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. Six 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, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $95.00.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of Ameren stock opened at $82.13 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $21.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. Ameren Co. has a 12 month low of $73.28 and a 12 month high of $97.53. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $87.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $86.78.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.95 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.41% and a net margin of 13.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 13th. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.07%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is currently 60.43%.

About Ameren

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Ameren Corp. is a public utility holding company, which engages in the provision of electric and natural gas services. It operates through the following segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, Ameren Transmission, and Other. The Ameren Transmission segment consists of the aggregated electric transmission businesses of Ameren Illinois and Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois (ATXI).