Truist Financial Corp Sells 699 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Truist Financial Corp decreased its stake in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 8.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,351 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 699 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Ameren were worth $523,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Ameren by 493.0% in the first quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,607,000 after acquiring an additional 18,064 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Ameren by 703.6% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 129,346 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,566,000 after acquiring an additional 113,250 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Ameren by 392.0% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,382,000 after acquiring an additional 15,484 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in Ameren by 137.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 100,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,407,000 after acquiring an additional 57,923 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new position in Ameren in the second quarter worth approximately $2,632,000. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total value of $131,923.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,640,758.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on AEE shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Ameren in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Ameren in a research report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price objective on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ameren currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.80.

Ameren Stock Performance

AEE opened at $88.74 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.08, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a fifty day moving average of $84.31 and a 200 day moving average of $77.28. Ameren Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.03 and a fifty-two week high of $88.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 16.28% and a return on equity of 10.20%. Ameren’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.02%. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 60.63%.

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.