Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. reduced its holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 640,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 40,478 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Ameren were worth $45,563,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AEE. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Ameren by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 898,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $65,007,000 after buying an additional 12,431 shares in the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Ameren by 493.0% during 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. Putnam Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Ameren by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,112,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $369,849,000 after purchasing an additional 156,733 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Ameren by 703.6% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 129,346 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,566,000 after purchasing an additional 113,250 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of Ameren by 83.9% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 264,835 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,158,000 after purchasing an additional 120,849 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AEE has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Ameren in a research note on Friday, July 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Barclays raised shares of Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Ameren from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other news, Director Rafael Flores sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.29, for a total transaction of $106,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,768 shares in the company, valued at approximately $981,520.72. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of AEE opened at $82.10 on Monday. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $67.03 and a 12-month high of $84.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.44. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $74.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.15. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40.

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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 16.28% and a return on equity of 10.20%. Ameren’s revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ameren Co. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.61%.

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.