Ameren Co. (AEE) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $0.67 on December 31st

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, October 11th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.67 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%.

Ameren has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. Ameren has a dividend payout ratio of 54.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Ameren to earn $4.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.6%.

Ameren Price Performance

Ameren stock opened at $86.45 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $83.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.98. The firm has a market cap of $23.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. Ameren has a 52-week low of $67.03 and a 52-week high of $88.11.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total value of $131,923.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Ameren from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Ameren in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price target for the company. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Argus upgraded shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.70.

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.