Morgan Stanley Cuts Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Price Target to $114.00

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) had its price objective reduced by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $118.00 to $114.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 4.89% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AEE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ameren from $126.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. KeyCorp raised shares of Ameren from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $122.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Ameren from $124.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $122.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.42.

Ameren Stock Down 0.1%

NYSE AEE traded down $0.10 during trading on Friday, hitting $108.69. 146,182 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,713,739. Ameren has a 12 month low of $96.57 and a 12 month high of $118.32. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $110.23. The company has a market capitalization of $30.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.14, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.47. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.05. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.95% and a net margin of 17.86%.The business had revenue of $2.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. Ameren has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ameren will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Theresa A. Shaw sold 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.93, for a total transaction of $35,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 32,340 shares in the company, valued at $3,522,796.20. The trade was a 0.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.96, for a total value of $708,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 199,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,758,113.44. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ameren

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ameren by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,645,555 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,559,565,000 after purchasing an additional 495,945 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ameren during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,918,526,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,885,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,586,324,000 after purchasing an additional 362,052 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,503,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,448,342,000 after purchasing an additional 457,876 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Ameren by 3.0% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,223,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $597,673,000 after buying an additional 179,137 shares during the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.