Ameren Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.67 (NYSE:AEE)

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, October 11th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of 0.67 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.10%.

Ameren has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. Ameren has a payout ratio of 54.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ameren to earn $4.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.6%.

Ameren Price Performance

Shares of AEE traded up $0.55 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $86.36. 335,962 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,610,679. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $83.78 and a 200-day moving average of $76.83. The stock has a market cap of $23.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.45. Ameren has a 1-year low of $67.03 and a 1-year high of $88.11.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AEE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Ameren in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Argus upgraded shares of Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction of $131,923.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly 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 this link. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.