Ameren Co. (AEE) To Go Ex-Dividend on September 11th

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, August 9th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be given a dividend of 0.67 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th.

Ameren has raised its dividend by an average of 8.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Ameren has a payout ratio of 54.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ameren to earn $4.90 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.7%.

Ameren Stock Down 0.7 %

AEE stock opened at $83.16 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $22.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $78.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $74.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.45. Ameren has a 12 month low of $67.03 and a 12 month high of $84.60.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.04. Ameren had a net margin of 16.28% and a return on equity of 10.20%. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on AEE shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Ameren from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ameren from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Barclays upgraded shares of Ameren from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Ameren in a research report on Friday, July 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $87.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $81.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 1,610 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.94, for a total transaction of $131,923.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,640,758.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ameren Company 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.