Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires Shares of 82,036 Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 82,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,323,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Ameren by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,749,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $600,157,000 after purchasing an additional 77,282 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its position in shares of Ameren by 1,732.4% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,068,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $273,527,000 after acquiring an additional 2,901,047 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 116.0% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,357,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $210,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,266,051 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Ameren by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,939,725 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $172,907,000 after acquiring an additional 38,939 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Ameren by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,696,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $151,256,000 after purchasing an additional 43,289 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ameren news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.37, for a total value of $557,535.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,344 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,393,781.28. The trade was a 11.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total transaction of $492,275.97. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 57,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,966,471.94. This trade represents a 7.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 12,959 shares of company stock worth $1,316,712. 0.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AEE. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays upped their target price on Ameren from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ameren currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.70.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of AEE stock opened at $94.30 on Tuesday. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $69.39 and a 12-month high of $104.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $98.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $92.70.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.01%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.25%.

Ameren 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.