Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Cut to Sell at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ameren (NYSE:AEE) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on AEE. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 price target on Ameren in a research note on Friday. Mizuho set a $117.00 price target on Ameren in a report on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $112.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ameren presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.30.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE AEE opened at $111.09 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Ameren has a twelve month low of $91.77 and a twelve month high of $112.65. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $103.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $102.51. The firm has a market cap of $30.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.57.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.69% and a net margin of 16.55%.The company had revenue of $1.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ameren will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is 53.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total value of $673,400.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at $20,002,673.60. This trade represents a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameren

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEE. NewSquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in Ameren by 70.9% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its position in shares of Ameren by 285.5% during the third quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 266 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. purchased a new position in Ameren during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Garton & Associates Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ameren in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ameren by 6,040.0% in the second quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Ameren

Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE) is an integrated energy company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that provides electric and natural gas delivery and related services in portions of Missouri and Illinois. The company operates regulated utility businesses that serve a broad mix of residential, commercial and industrial customers, and it participates in wholesale energy markets and transmission operations that support reliable service across its service territories.

Ameren’s core activities include generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, distribution of natural gas, and the provision of customer energy solutions such as demand-side management and energy efficiency programs.