16,150 Shares in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Bought by Oak Thistle LLC

Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 16,150 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,168,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ameren during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Penserra Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Ameren in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Ameren by 218.2% in the 3rd quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Ameren in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in Ameren during the 3rd quarter worth $37,000. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on AEE. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Ameren from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, December 15th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Ameren from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. KeyCorp cut Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 15th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Ameren from $77.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ameren from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.11.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, EVP Mark C. Lindgren sold 1,630 shares of the business’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 $115,241.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 47,883 shares in the company, valued at $3,385,328.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Martin J. Lyons sold 7,270 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total value of $513,989.00. Following the completion of 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark C. Lindgren sold 1,630 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,385,328.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE AEE traded up $0.53 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $73.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 438,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,859,604. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $67.03 and a 12-month high of $91.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market cap of $19.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.44. The business’s 50 day moving average is $70.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.98.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.03 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 15.36%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.63%. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.33%.

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.