Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 21.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 934 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Ameren were worth $458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Blair William & Co. IL increased its holdings in Ameren by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 4,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $350,000 after buying an additional 252 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Ameren by 22.9% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 7,297 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $540,000 after buying an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Natixis purchased a new stake in shares of Ameren during the 1st quarter valued at about $91,000. Shell Asset Management Co. raised its holdings in Ameren by 183.4% during the 1st quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 7,643 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $565,000 after buying an additional 4,946 shares during the period. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC raised its position in Ameren by 108.1% in the 1st quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ameren

In other 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 transaction of $131,923.40. Following 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 3.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.42% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AEE shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Ameren from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Argus raised shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Mizuho upgraded Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ameren from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ameren currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.80.

Ameren Stock Up 2.0 %

AEE stock opened at $94.06 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.12. The stock has a market cap of $25.11 billion, a PE ratio of 22.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.45. Ameren Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.03 and a fifty-two week high of $94.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 63.06%.

Ameren Profile

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.