Ameren Corporation $AEE Stock Acquired by Prosperitas Financial LLC

Prosperitas Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 12.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 49,298 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,292 shares during the period. Prosperitas Financial LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $4,899,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ameren in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,918,526,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Ameren by 11.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,377,156 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $591,056,000 after buying an additional 553,164 shares during the period. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ameren during the 2nd quarter valued at $578,254,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ameren by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,758,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $303,227,000 after buying an additional 18,526 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Ameren by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,265,022 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $248,971,000 after acquiring an additional 136,631 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on AEE. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $117.00 to $109.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 19th. HSBC started coverage on shares of Ameren in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $119.10 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ameren from $126.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Ameren in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. They set a “hold” rating and a $114.00 price objective for the company. Finally, BTIG Research set a $126.00 target price on Ameren in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $116.74.

Ameren Stock Up 0.2%

Ameren stock opened at $110.45 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $30.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.56, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.44. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.28. Ameren Corporation has a 12 month low of $96.57 and a 12 month high of $118.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.05. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.95% and a net margin of 17.86%. The company had revenue of $2.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.27 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. Ameren’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Ameren Corporation will post 5.40 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 8th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.82%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Theresa A. Shaw sold 325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.93, for a total transaction of $35,402.25. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 32,340 shares in the company, valued at $3,522,796.20. This represents a 0.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.96, for a total transaction of $708,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 199,689 shares in the company, valued at $21,758,113.44. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 7,073 shares of company stock valued at $769,814 in the last 90 days. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ameren Profile

Ameren Corporation is a regulated electric and natural gas utility holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Through its operating companies, Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois, the company provides electric generation, transmission and distribution services, as well as natural gas distribution.

Ameren serves approximately 2.5 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers across Missouri and Illinois. Its operations include a diverse generation portfolio and infrastructure designed to deliver reliable energy to residential, commercial and industrial customers, while supporting the transition toward cleaner energy resources.

Ameren was formed in 1997 through the merger of Union Electric Company and CIPSCO Inc The company is led by Martin J.