International Assets Investment Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 8,645.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,160,998 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,147,723 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC owned 0.44% of Ameren worth $1,015,410,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ameren by 2.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,092,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,447,516,000 after purchasing an additional 802,714 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Ameren by 25.0% in the first 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 shares of Ameren by 204.3% in the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 3,827,897 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $283,111,000 after purchasing an additional 2,569,897 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in Ameren by 0.8% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,877,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $212,836,000 after acquiring an additional 23,967 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Ameren by 106.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,498,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $177,644,000 after acquiring an additional 1,286,162 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price target on Ameren from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Ameren in a research report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price target for the company. Mizuho raised Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $82.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Ameren in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price target for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Ameren from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have given 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 a consensus price target of $87.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total transaction of $131,923.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at $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 is available through this link. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ameren Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE:AEE opened at $89.20 on Thursday. 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 Co. has a one year low of $67.03 and a one year high of $89.21. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $85.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.82. The stock has a market cap of $23.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.45.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 16.28%. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 60.63%.

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.