Huntington National Bank Raises Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Huntington National Bank increased its position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 19.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,075 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,138 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Ameren were worth $631,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in Ameren by 116.0% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,357,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $210,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,266,051 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Ameren by 42.1% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,469,037 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,950,000 after buying an additional 434,889 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Ameren by 51.7% in 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 raised its holdings in Ameren by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,149,221,000 after acquiring an additional 334,752 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ameren during the fourth quarter worth $19,367,000. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ameren Trading Down 5.7 %

NYSE AEE opened at $95.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.66. Ameren Co. has a fifty-two week low of $69.39 and a fifty-two week high of $104.10. The stock has a market cap of $25.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $98.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.51.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.96%. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Ameren news, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total transaction of $492,275.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 57,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,966,471.94. This trade represents a 7.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.37, for a total transaction of $557,535.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,344 shares in the company, valued at $4,393,781.28. This represents a 11.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,959 shares of company stock worth $1,316,712 in the last quarter. 0.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Ameren Company 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.