Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Shares Purchased by Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,048,729 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 392,170 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.10% of Ameren worth $2,411,125,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ameren by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,749,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $600,157,000 after purchasing an additional 77,282 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Ameren by 96.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,170,709 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $460,917,000 after buying an additional 2,539,129 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in Ameren by 1,732.4% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,068,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $273,527,000 after buying an additional 2,901,047 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of Ameren by 116.0% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,357,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $210,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,266,051 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ameren by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,939,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $172,907,000 after acquiring an additional 38,939 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ameren news, Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now owns 14,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,424,423.65. The trade was a 15.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.37, for a total transaction of $557,535.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,344 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,393,781.28. This represents a 11.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,959 shares of company stock valued at $1,316,712 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AEE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $89.00 to $104.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays decreased their price target on Ameren from $102.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $99.22.

Ameren Stock Performance

Ameren stock opened at $99.17 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $98.54 and a 200-day moving average of $93.56. The stock has a market cap of $26.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.45. Ameren Co. has a 52 week low of $69.39 and a 52 week 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.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 15.51% and a return on equity of 10.34%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.86%. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. Ameren’s dividend 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.