Ameren (NYSE:AEE) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to Sell

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ameren (NYSE:AEE) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on AEE. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Ameren from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. BTIG Research set a $126.00 price objective on shares of Ameren in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. KeyCorp raised Ameren from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $122.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ameren from $126.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Ameren from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ameren currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.08.

Ameren Stock Performance

NYSE:AEE opened at $108.99 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $30.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.19, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.47. The business has a 50 day moving average of $110.86 and a 200 day moving average of $109.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.37. Ameren has a 1-year low of $96.57 and a 1-year high of $118.32.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.27 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 17.86% and a return on equity of 10.95%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. Ameren has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ameren will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Theresa A. Shaw sold 325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.08, for a total value of $35,451.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 32,618 shares in the company, valued at $3,557,971.44. This represents a 0.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.96, for a total value of $708,240.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 199,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,758,113.44. This trade represents a 3.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 8,325 shares of company stock worth $907,716. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ameren

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ameren by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,645,555 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,559,565,000 after purchasing an additional 495,945 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Ameren during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,918,526,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Ameren by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,885,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,586,324,000 after purchasing an additional 362,052 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Ameren by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,503,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,448,342,000 after buying an additional 457,876 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Ameren by 3.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,223,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $597,673,000 after buying an additional 179,137 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Company Profile

Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE) is an integrated energy company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that provides electric and natural gas delivery and related services in portions of Missouri and Illinois. The company operates regulated utility businesses that serve a broad mix of residential, commercial and industrial customers, and it participates in wholesale energy markets and transmission operations that support reliable service across its service territories.

Ameren’s core activities include generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, distribution of natural gas, and the provision of customer energy solutions such as demand-side management and energy efficiency programs.