Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Receives $79.90 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $79.90.

AEE has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Ameren in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $73.00 target price on the stock. Barclays lowered 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Ameren from $76.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Ameren from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other news, CEO Martin J. Lyons sold 7,270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total value of $513,989.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 246,434 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,422,883.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Ameren news, CEO Martin J. Lyons sold 7,270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 246,434 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.53, for a total transaction of $302,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 43,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,318,410.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 12,900 shares of company stock valued at $931,350. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameren

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AEE. Beck Bode LLC grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 39.2% during the first quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 162,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,032,000 after buying an additional 45,834 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its holdings in shares of Ameren by 12.0% during the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 15,568 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,671 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Ameren by 204.3% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 3,827,897 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $283,111,000 after purchasing an additional 2,569,897 shares during the period. Alethea Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ameren during the first quarter valued at about $259,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ameren by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 4,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $368,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ameren Stock Performance

Ameren stock opened at $73.20 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.83, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.44. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $73.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.20. Ameren has a 52 week low of $67.03 and a 52 week high of $88.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.06 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 15.84%. The business’s revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ameren will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 12th. Ameren’s payout ratio is 61.61%.

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.