BLB&B Advisors LLC Sells 200 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

BLB&B Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 6.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $207,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AEE. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Ameren by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,931,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,696,022,000 after purchasing an additional 4,593,638 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP grew its position in Ameren by 204.3% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 3,827,897 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $283,111,000 after buying an additional 2,569,897 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. purchased a new position in Ameren during the fourth quarter worth about $60,445,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ameren by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,092,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,447,516,000 after buying an additional 802,714 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd purchased a new position in Ameren during the first quarter worth about $27,895,000. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other news, Director Rafael Flores sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.29, for a total value of $106,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $981,520.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on AEE shares. UBS Group started coverage on Ameren in a research report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 target price for the company. Barclays upgraded Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $77.00 in a report on Thursday, May 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Ameren from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.10.

Ameren Trading Up 0.8 %

AEE stock traded up $0.69 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $82.34. 1,414,595 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,638,110. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.96 billion, a PE ratio of 18.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.44. Ameren Co. has a 1 year low of $67.03 and a 1 year high of $84.40. The company has a 50-day moving average of $76.63 and a 200-day moving average of $73.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. Ameren’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. Analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio 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.