LPL Financial LLC Buys 14,121 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 12.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 131,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 14,121 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $11,695,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Ameren by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 10,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,282 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 51.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,064,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,134,000 after buying an additional 362,772 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Ameren by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,149,221,000 after buying an additional 334,752 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Ameren by 57.7% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 174,840 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,291,000 after buying an additional 63,993 shares in the last quarter. Finally, U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ameren during the fourth quarter valued at about $317,000. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.27, for a total transaction of $266,901.32. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,424,423.65. This represents a 15.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total value of $492,275.97. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,966,471.94. This represents a 7.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,959 shares of company stock valued at $1,316,712. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $89.00 to $104.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.70.

Ameren Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE AEE opened at $100.93 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.48. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $69.39 and a 12-month high of $104.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $98.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $92.38.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.06). Ameren had a net margin of 15.51% and a return on equity of 10.34%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 64.25%.

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.