Financial Counselors Inc. Has $1.58 Million Stock Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Financial Counselors Inc. trimmed its position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 215 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Ameren were worth $1,576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AEE. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Ameren by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,149,221,000 after buying an additional 334,752 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ameren by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,672,164 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $581,661,000 after acquiring an additional 127,287 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Ameren by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,561,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $398,992,000 after acquiring an additional 39,300 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 59.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,631,580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $230,158,000 after purchasing an additional 984,879 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 26.1% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 2,318,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $202,779,000 after purchasing an additional 479,668 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ameren

In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.37, for a total transaction of $557,535.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,344 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,393,781.28. This trade represents a 11.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total value of $492,275.97. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,966,471.94. The trade was a 7.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 12,959 shares of company stock worth $1,316,712. 0.42% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Ameren has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.70.

Ameren Trading Down 0.2 %

AEE opened at $98.64 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.48. Ameren Co. has a 12 month low of $69.39 and a 12 month high of $104.10. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $97.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $91.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.88%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.25%.

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.