Ameren edges down after $522 mln stock offering priced

Shares of utility co Ameren Corp AEE.N down 0.6% at $94.88 on light premarket volume after overnight follow-on priced

St. Louis, Missouri-based Ameren late Mon announced ~5.6 mln shares at $94 for total deal size of ~$521.7 mln as part of forward sale

Offering priced at 1.5% discount to stock's last sale

Co entered into forward sale agreements with jt bookrunners Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Barclays and Wells Fargo

Upon settlement settlement of the agreements, to occur on or prior to Jan 15, 2027, co intends to use net proceeds for general purposes, including to repay short-term debt

Co has ~270.3 mln shares o utstanding for roughly $26 bln market cap

Forward sale structure allows the utility to lock in current prices and delays new share issuance and collecting proceeds until Ameren needs the funds, thereby avoiding immediate shareholder dilution

Last week, utilities ONE Gas OGS.N and IDACORP IDA.N completed equity offerings with forward sale components. In Mar, peers AEP AEP.O and Entergy ETR.N availed themselves of forward sales format

Through Mon, AEE shares up ~7% YTD compared to 5% gain in S&P 500 Utilities index .SPLRCU