Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Now Covered by Jefferies Financial Group

Stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Ameren (NYSE:AEE) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $97.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price indicates a potential upside of 13.29% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on AEE. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. UBS Group began coverage on Ameren in a report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Ameren from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Ameren from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $82.00 to $89.00 in a report on Monday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $85.00.

Ameren Trading Up 2.4 %

Ameren stock opened at $85.62 on Thursday. Ameren has a 52 week low of $67.03 and a 52 week high of $85.85. 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 market capitalization of $22.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.68, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.43.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. Ameren’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total transaction of $131,923.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,432 shares in the company, valued at $3,640,758.08. 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.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,092,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,447,516,000 after buying an additional 802,714 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 25.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,931,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,696,022,000 after buying an additional 4,593,638 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,112,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $369,849,000 after buying an additional 156,733 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 204.3% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 3,827,897 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $283,111,000 after buying an additional 2,569,897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 23,967 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.