Raymond James & Associates Acquires 8,540 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE - Free Report) by 7.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 129,727 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 8,540 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates' holdings in Ameren were worth $11,346,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Ameren by 493.0% during 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 in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Ameren by 703.6% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Ameren by 392.0% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,434 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,382,000 after purchasing an additional 15,484 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Ameren by 137.2% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 100,154 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $7,407,000 after purchasing an additional 57,923 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in Ameren during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,632,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on AEE. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Ameren in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They set a "buy" rating and a $97.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Argus upgraded shares of Ameren to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $87.80.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE AEE traded down $2.08 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $86.04. 1,137,220 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,581,138. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.47, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.45. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $67.03 and a 12-month high of $89.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50 day moving average of $85.47 and a 200-day moving average of $78.17.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 16.28% and a return on equity of 10.20%. The company's revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. Ameren's payout ratio is 60.63%.

Insider Transactions at Ameren

In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total value of $131,923.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,432 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

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.