Ameren Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:AEE)

Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 2,984 call options on the company. This is an increase of 2,268% compared to the typical volume of 126 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AEE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays downgraded shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $88.00 to $95.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Ameren from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ameren has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.70.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ameren

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of Ameren in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,417,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Ameren by 59.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,631,580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $230,158,000 after buying an additional 984,879 shares during the last quarter. Lindenwold Advisors INC acquired a new position in Ameren in the third quarter worth approximately $1,682,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Ameren by 51.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,064,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,134,000 after buying an additional 362,772 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Ameren by 265.0% in the third quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC now owns 173,771 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,198,000 after buying an additional 126,157 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Price Performance

Shares of AEE opened at $97.07 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.49. Ameren has a fifty-two week low of $69.39 and a fifty-two week high of $100.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The business’s 50-day moving average is $92.48 and its 200-day moving average is $88.80.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its earnings results 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 15.51% and a return on equity of 10.34%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Ameren will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.93%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio is currently 60.63%.

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.