Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Receives $79.40 Average Target Price from Analysts

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $79.40.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AEE. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Ameren in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $73.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Ameren from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com downgraded Ameren from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Ameren from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Ameren from $74.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameren

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. HB Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Ameren in the third quarter worth $205,000. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC bought a new position in Ameren in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Ameren by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,155 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,583,000 after buying an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its position in shares of Ameren by 47.7% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 45,924 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,436,000 after buying an additional 14,837 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 3.6% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 167,478 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,532,000 after acquiring an additional 5,801 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE:AEE opened at $73.66 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.52. The stock has a market cap of $19.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.44. Ameren has a 1 year low of $67.03 and a 1 year high of $90.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.65.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.03 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 15.36%. Ameren’s revenue was down 20.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ameren will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.64%. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.33%.

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.