Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Sells 333,967 Shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec trimmed its position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE - Free Report) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,984,570 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 333,967 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned 0.74% of Ameren worth $176,905,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AEE. Barclays PLC increased its position in Ameren by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 489,935 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $42,849,000 after purchasing an additional 1,856 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ameren during the third quarter valued at about $215,000. Tudor Financial Inc. bought a new position in Ameren in the third quarter worth about $463,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in Ameren in the third quarter worth about $74,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Ameren by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 331,801 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $29,019,000 after acquiring an additional 19,217 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.09% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AEE. Evercore ISI raised Ameren from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ameren from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Ameren from $101.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Ameren in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $99.89.

Ameren Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:AEE traded up $0.07 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $99.62. 311,034 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,798,119. Ameren Co. has a 52-week low of $69.39 and a 52-week high of $104.10. The stock has a market cap of $26.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $98.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $94.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.66.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.01). Ameren had a return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 15.51%. The business had revenue of $2.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is an increase from Ameren's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.85%. Ameren's dividend payout ratio is 62.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 5,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.37, for a total value of $557,535.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,344 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,393,781.28. This trade represents a 11.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total value of $492,275.97. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,486 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,966,471.94. This represents a 7.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,959 shares of company stock valued at $1,316,712. Company insiders own 0.42% of the company's stock.

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.