Nomura Holdings Inc. Takes $784,000 Position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 8,794 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $784,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Ameren by 0.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 489,935 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,849,000 after acquiring an additional 1,856 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Ameren by 24.7% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 4,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $410,000 after acquiring an additional 910 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ameren by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $349,000 after acquiring an additional 490 shares during the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ameren during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Finally, Tudor Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Ameren by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Tudor Financial Inc. now owns 5,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $490,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on AEE. Evercore ISI raised Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. KeyCorp raised Ameren from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $103.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. UBS Group increased their price target on Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $101.80.

Insider Activity

In other 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 value of $492,275.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 57,486 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of Ameren 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 transaction, the director now owns 14,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,424,423.65. This trade represents a 15.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 12,959 shares of company stock worth $1,316,712. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE:AEE opened at $98.83 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. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $98.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.01. Ameren Co. has a 1 year low of $69.39 and a 1 year high of $104.10. The company has a market capitalization of $26.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.51.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.01). Ameren had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 15.51%. The firm had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 10th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.97%.

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.