Arcus Capital Partners LLC Acquires New Stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Arcus Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 10,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $908,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jamison Private Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Ameren in the 3rd quarter valued at about $44,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 134.5% in the fourth quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 86.2% in the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 540 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Ameren in the 3rd quarter worth $56,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Ameren in the 3rd quarter worth $74,000. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, CFO Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.15, for a total value of $598,975.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 205,171 shares in the company, valued at $18,906,507.65. The trade was a 3.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AEE. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Ameren from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Barclays downgraded shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.00.

Ameren Stock Up 1.1 %

Ameren stock opened at $98.35 on Friday. Ameren Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.68 and a fifty-two week high of $98.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.63. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $91.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.17. The company has a market capitalization of $26.25 billion, a PE ratio of 23.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.49.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.06). Ameren had a net margin of 15.52% and a return on equity of 10.09%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 63.06%.

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.