Hedge Funds Are Dumping Ameren Corp (AEE)

Is Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE) a sell?

In the eyes of many traders, hedge funds are viewed as bloated, outdated investment vehicles of an era lost to time. Although there are over 8,000 hedge funds trading in present day, Insider Monkey looks at the aristocrats of this group, close to 525 funds. It is assumed that this group oversees the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their highest performing investments, we’ve come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 33 percentage points in 11 months (find the details here).

Equally as crucial, bullish insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the financial markets. Just as you’d expect, there are many stimuli for an insider to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Various academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Ameren

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to discuss the recent info about Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE).

What does the smart money think about Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE)?

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 18 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of -14% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully.

According to our 13F database, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management had the most valuable position in Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE), worth close to $99.4 million, accounting for 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which held a $76.1 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include Millennium Management Subsidiary’s Decade Capital Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE) has witnessed declining interest from upper-tier hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there were a few funds who sold off their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management said goodbye to the largest position of the 450+ funds we track, worth about $18 million in stock. Thomas M. Fitzgerald’s fund, Longbow Capital Partners, also dumped its stock, about $6.6 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds last quarter.

What have insiders been doing with Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE)?

Bullish insider trading is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the latest 180-day time frame, Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll also take a look at the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE). These stocks are NV Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NVE), Northeast Utilities System (NYSE:NU), CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP), NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI), and NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG). This group of stocks are the members of the diversified utilities industry and their market caps match AEE’s market cap.

Company Name # of Hedge Funds # of Insiders Buying # of Insiders Selling
NV Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NVE) 20 0 0
Northeast Utilities System (NYSE:NU) 14 0 0
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) 23 0 0
NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI) 19 0 0
NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) 34 0 0

Using the results demonstrated by Insider Monkey’s research, regular investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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