Allstate Corp Purchases Shares of 8,066 Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Allstate Corp acquired a new position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 8,066 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $719,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AEE. FMR LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 984,879 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Ameren by 42.1% in the 4th 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 last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Ameren by 51.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,064,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,134,000 after acquiring an additional 362,772 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,149,221,000 after purchasing an additional 334,752 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ameren in the 4th quarter valued at about $19,367,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AEE. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Ameren from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ameren presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.70.

Ameren Stock Up 1.0 %

AEE opened at $100.69 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.44. Ameren Co. has a 12 month low of $69.39 and a 12 month high of $104.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.20.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.82%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.