BTIG Research Initiates Coverage on Ameren (NYSE:AEE)

Key Points

• BTIG Research initiated coverage on Ameren (NYSE:AEE) with a "buy" rating and a $131 price target, implying roughly a 16.15% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed — seven Buys, six Holds and one Sell — resulting in a MarketBeat consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $114.92.
• Ameren beat quarterly EPS estimates ($0.78 vs. $0.77) and reported $1.78B in revenue (above estimates) despite revenue declining 8.2% year-over-year; institutional investors own about 79% of the stock and insiders hold ~0.42%.

Analysts at BTIG Research started coverage on shares of Ameren (NYSE:AEE - Get Free Report) in a note issued to investors on Thursday. The firm set a "buy" rating and a $131.00 price target on the utilities provider's stock. BTIG Research's price target points to a potential upside of 16.15% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on AEE. Barclays cut their price objective on Ameren from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp cut shares of Ameren from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Argus upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $114.92.

Ameren Trading Up 1.3%

NYSE AEE opened at $112.79 on Thursday. Ameren has a 12-month low of $91.77 and a 12-month high of $113.93. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $109.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $104.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market cap of $31.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.52.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.69 billion. Ameren had a net margin of 16.55% and a return on equity of 10.69%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.77 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ameren will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total value of $673,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 193,076 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,002,673.60. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ameren

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ameren by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,645,555 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,559,565,000 after buying an additional 495,945 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Ameren by 2.3% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 362,052 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 457,876 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ameren by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,283,529 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $655,892,000 after acquiring an additional 60,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Ameren by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,290,191 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $528,278,000 after acquiring an additional 149,952 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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