Trust Point Inc. Makes New Investment in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Trust Point Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 8,664 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $627,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 100,874.2% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 74,273,572 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,604,406,000 after buying an additional 74,200,015 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,824,707 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,051,453,000 after buying an additional 2,200,700 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 8.0% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,889,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,302,326,000 after buying an additional 1,029,187 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,978,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,810,808,000 after purchasing an additional 681,658 shares during the period. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 105.0% in the third quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 1,289,754 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,512,000 after purchasing an additional 660,654 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other news, CEO Martin J. Lyons sold 7,270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total transaction of $513,989.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 246,434 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,422,883.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Ameren news, EVP Mark C. Lindgren sold 1,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total value of $115,241.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,385,328.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Martin J. Lyons sold 7,270 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total value of $513,989.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 246,434 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,422,883.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AEE. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $77.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ameren from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Ameren from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.11.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of AEE opened at $72.89 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market cap of $19.43 billion, a PE ratio of 16.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.44. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.92. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $67.03 and a 12-month high of $91.18.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by ($0.01). Ameren had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 20.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.33%.

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.