Clarius Group LLC Trims Position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Clarius Group LLC lowered its stake in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 4.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 138 shares during the quarter. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $237,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AEE. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 493.0% in the 1st quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after purchasing an additional 18,064 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Ameren by 703.6% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 129,346 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,566,000 after buying an additional 113,250 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 392.0% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,382,000 after acquiring an additional 15,484 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of Ameren by 137.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 100,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,407,000 after acquiring an additional 57,923 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in Ameren during the second quarter worth about $2,632,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AEE shares. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Ameren in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Ameren from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total value of $131,923.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,640,758.08. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ameren Stock Up 0.7 %

AEE stock opened at $86.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $76.98. Ameren Co. has a 12 month low of $67.03 and a 12 month high of $88.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.45.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.04. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Ameren’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.10%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 60.63%.

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.