Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Shares Purchased by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 39.5% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,427 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,254 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $315,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AEE. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Ameren by 25.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,931,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,696,022,000 after buying an additional 4,593,638 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP raised its position in shares of Ameren by 204.3% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $60,445,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Ameren by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,092,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,447,516,000 after acquiring an additional 802,714 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ameren during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,895,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, Director Rafael Flores sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.29, for a total transaction of $106,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,768 shares in the company, valued at approximately $981,520.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Ameren news, Director Rafael Flores sold 1,500 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.29, for a total transaction of $106,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,768 shares in the company, valued at approximately $981,520.72. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark C. Lindgren sold 4,000 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.53, for a total transaction of $302,120.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,318,410.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of Ameren stock traded down $2.34 on Monday, hitting $80.19. The stock had a trading volume of 1,708,667 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,690,598. The stock has a market cap of $21.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.44. Ameren Co. has a twelve month low of $67.03 and a twelve month high of $84.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31. The business’s 50 day moving average is $73.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.34.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.26% and a net margin of 16.28%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Ameren Co. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 12th. Ameren’s payout ratio is 61.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed 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 raised Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $77.00 in a report on Thursday, May 30th. StockNews.com raised Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group began coverage on Ameren in a report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Ameren from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ameren currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.50.

Ameren 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.