CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC Reduces Holdings in Ameren Corporation $AEE

CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lowered its position in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 12.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 377,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 55,419 shares during the quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $39,446,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AEE. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 22.9% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 8,077 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $811,000 after acquiring an additional 1,503 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 19.8% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,255 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $628,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP boosted its holdings in Ameren by 42.2% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 22,802 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,289,000 after purchasing an additional 6,772 shares during the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Ameren by 11.7% in the second quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 25,254 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,425,000 after purchasing an additional 2,651 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its stake in Ameren by 88.4% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 4,415 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 2,071 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on AEE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $116.00 price target on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.30.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total transaction of $673,400.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 193,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,002,673.60. This represents a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Down 1.3%

NYSE:AEE opened at $110.73 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $30.61 billion, a PE ratio of 20.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.56. The business’s 50 day moving average is $107.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $103.76. 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 Corporation has a 52 week low of $91.77 and a 52 week high of $113.93.

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

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 56.07%.

Ameren Profile

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.