Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Has $334,000 Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,751 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $334,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Ameren by 59.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,631,580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $230,158,000 after acquiring an additional 984,879 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 484.8% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 637,241 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,733,000 after purchasing an additional 528,270 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its holdings in Ameren by 26.1% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 2,318,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $202,779,000 after purchasing an additional 479,668 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Ameren by 42.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,469,037 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,950,000 after buying an additional 434,889 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Ameren by 51.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,064,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,134,000 after buying an additional 362,772 shares during the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AEE. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Ameren from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.27, for a total transaction of $266,901.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,495 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,424,423.65. The trade was a 15.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total value of $492,275.97. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 57,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,966,471.94. This trade represents a 7.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,959 shares of company stock valued at $1,316,712. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ameren Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE AEE opened at $98.77 on Thursday. Ameren Co. has a 52 week low of $69.39 and a 52 week high of $104.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $94.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $90.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.35, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.48.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.06). Ameren had a net margin of 15.51% and a return on equity of 10.34%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.88%. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 64.25%.

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.