14,109 Shares in Ameren Corporation $AEE Acquired by Empowered Funds LLC

Key Points

• Empowered Funds LLC acquired 14,109 Ameren shares in the second quarter, valued at approximately $1.6 million. Institutional investors collectively own 79.09% of the utility company.
• Analyst sentiment remains favorable, with 10 Buy ratings and three Holds producing a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $121.42, despite one downgrade to Sell.
• Ameren exceeded quarterly EPS expectations ($1.13 versus $1.08) but reported a 5.8% year-over-year revenue decline. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.75 per share, representing a 2.8% annualized yield.

Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 14,109 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,595,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in Ameren by 22.9% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 8,077 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $811,000 after acquiring an additional 1,503 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP boosted its position in Ameren by 42.2% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 22,802 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,289,000 after purchasing an additional 6,772 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 48.1% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $149,000 after purchasing an additional 505 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,688 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $450,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the period. Finally, Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ameren by 26.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 5,596 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $537,000 after purchasing an additional 1,159 shares during the period. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Ameren from $122.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. BTIG Research set a $126.00 target price on shares of Ameren in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ameren from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ameren from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Ameren from $121.00 to $119.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $121.42.

Ameren Stock Performance

Shares of AEE opened at $106.41 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $110.29. The stock has a market cap of $29.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.73, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.46. Ameren Corporation has a 52 week low of $96.57 and a 52 week high of $118.32.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.05. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.95% and a net margin of 17.86%.The firm had revenue of $2.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Ameren has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ameren Corporation will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Ameren Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. Ameren's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 199,689 shares in the company, valued at $21,758,113.44. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Theresa A. Shaw sold 325 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.93, for a total transaction of $35,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 32,340 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,522,796.20. This trade represents a 0.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Ameren

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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