Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC Purchases New Stake in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE)

Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,750 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $276,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its position in shares of Ameren by 1,732.4% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,068,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $273,527,000 after buying an additional 2,901,047 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 96.5% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,170,709 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $460,917,000 after purchasing an additional 2,539,129 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ameren by 16.7% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,038,754 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,518,835,000 after purchasing an additional 2,439,811 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Ameren by 116.0% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,357,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $210,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,266,051 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ameren by 76.7% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,134,288 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $190,250,000 after purchasing an additional 926,126 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ameren Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of AEE stock opened at $95.15 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $95.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Ameren Corporation has a 1-year low of $69.39 and a 1-year high of $104.10. The firm has a market cap of $25.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.10, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.49.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.92 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.40% and a net margin of 15.31%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ameren Corporation will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 10th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.97%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Ameren in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $114.00 price objective (up previously from $113.00) on shares of Ameren in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Ameren from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $91.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Ameren from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $103.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $101.64.

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.