Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Ameren (NYSE:AEE) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Friday morning.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on AEE. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Ameren from $77.00 to $72.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 18th. 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 target price on shares of Ameren from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ameren from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Ameren from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $79.40.

Ameren Stock Down 0.3 %

Ameren stock opened at $71.58 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $19.08 billion, a PE ratio of 16.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $71.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.54. Ameren has a twelve month low of $67.03 and a twelve month high of $91.18.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.01). Ameren had a net margin of 15.36% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The business had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Ameren will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.74%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, CEO Martin J. Lyons sold 7,270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total transaction of $513,989.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 246,434 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,422,883.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Mark C. Lindgren sold 1,630 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total value of $115,241.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 47,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,385,328.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Martin J. Lyons sold 7,270 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total transaction of $513,989.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 246,434 shares in the company, valued at $17,422,883.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ameren

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in Ameren by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 351,806 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,020,000 after purchasing an additional 3,134 shares in the last quarter. Executive Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Ameren by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Executive Wealth Group LLC now owns 13,539 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $969,000 after purchasing an additional 9,026 shares in the last quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd increased its stake in Ameren by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 21,735 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,607,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Ameren by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. now owns 13,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marcum Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Ameren during the 1st quarter worth approximately $215,000. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.