Brady Family Wealth LLC Invests $215,000 in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Brady Family Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 2,458 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AEE. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ameren in the 4th quarter worth about $254,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ameren in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ameren in the fourth quarter valued at about $88,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,289,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,335,838,000 after buying an additional 180,794 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ameren in the fourth quarter valued at about $254,000. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AEE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets increased 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 Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Ameren in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $97.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Ameren from $81.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,640,758.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ameren Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:AEE opened at $87.93 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The business’s 50 day moving average is $84.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $77.20. Ameren Co. has a 52 week low of $67.03 and a 52 week high of $88.51. The company has a market cap of $23.45 billion, a PE ratio of 20.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.45.

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

Ameren Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.61%.

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.