Roxbury Financial LLC Purchases New Position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 285 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $27,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter worth approximately $238,000. CFC Planning Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter worth approximately $248,000. Arcus Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ameren during the 4th quarter worth approximately $908,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Ameren by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 82,061 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,315,000 after buying an additional 5,808 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC lifted its position in shares of Ameren by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 7,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $683,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on AEE shares. Evercore ISI raised shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lowered shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ameren from $93.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ameren has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.00.

Ameren Stock Down 0.3 %

Ameren stock opened at $98.01 on Friday. Ameren Co. has a 1-year low of $68.60 and a 1-year high of $100.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $92.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.38.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.06). Ameren had a net margin of 15.52% and a return on equity of 10.09%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. Ameren’s payout ratio is 63.06%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.15, for a total transaction of $598,975.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 205,171 shares in the company, valued at $18,906,507.65. The trade was a 3.07 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 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.