Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Has $2.68 Million Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 30,671 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,561 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in Ameren were worth $2,682,000 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. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 buying an additional 802,714 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in 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 last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP lifted its holdings in Ameren by 204.3% during the 1st 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 last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted 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 worth $212,836,000 after purchasing an additional 23,967 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 106.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,498,158 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $177,644,000 after purchasing an additional 1,286,162 shares during the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AEE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Ameren in a research report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price objective for the company. Argus raised Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Mizuho raised Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $82.00 to $89.00 in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Ameren from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.80.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE:AEE opened at $88.84 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $23.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.10, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.45. Ameren Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.03 and a fifty-two week high of $88.90. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $84.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.52.

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

Ameren Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.02%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 60.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total value of $131,923.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.42% 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.