Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 217,259 Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 217,259 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $19,367,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Business Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter worth about $994,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in shares of Ameren by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 77,497 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,908,000 after buying an additional 1,097 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter worth about $4,180,000. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in shares of Ameren by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 24,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,199,000 after buying an additional 1,998 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc raised its position in shares of Ameren by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 15,659 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,396,000 after buying an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ameren Stock Performance

Ameren stock opened at $99.26 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $95.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $90.96. The company has a market cap of $26.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.44. Ameren Co. has a fifty-two week low of $69.39 and a fifty-two week high of $104.10.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.06). Ameren had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 15.51%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.86%. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 64.25%.

Insider Activity at Ameren

In other Ameren news, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total value of $492,275.97. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,486 shares in the company, valued at $5,966,471.94. The trade was a 7.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.27, for a total transaction of $266,901.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,424,423.65. This trade represents a 15.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,959 shares of company stock valued at $1,316,712. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on AEE. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.40.

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.