California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 166,825 Shares of Ameren Corporation $AEE

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its holdings in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 16.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 846,788 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 166,825 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.31% of Ameren worth $88,388,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AEE. Allstate Corp bought a new position in shares of Ameren in the 3rd quarter worth $1,050,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Ameren by 4.7% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,787,278 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $186,556,000 after purchasing an additional 79,763 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Ameren in the third quarter valued at about $1,097,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its stake in Ameren by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 255,152 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,505,000 after buying an additional 2,750 shares during the period. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Ameren in the second quarter valued at about $13,305,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AEE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Ameren from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ameren in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ameren from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $116.00 target price on shares of Ameren in a research note on Friday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.30.

Ameren Price Performance

NYSE:AEE opened at $112.82 on Tuesday. Ameren Corporation has a 52-week low of $91.77 and a 52-week high of $113.64. The company has a market cap of $31.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $106.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.62.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.69 billion. Ameren had a return on equity of 10.69% and a net margin of 16.55%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ameren Corporation will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 56.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In related news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.60, for a total value of $673,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 193,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,002,673.60. This trade represents a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Profile

Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE) is an integrated energy company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that provides electric and natural gas delivery and related services in portions of Missouri and Illinois. The company operates regulated utility businesses that serve a broad mix of residential, commercial and industrial customers, and it participates in wholesale energy markets and transmission operations that support reliable service across its service territories.

Ameren’s core activities include generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, distribution of natural gas, and the provision of customer energy solutions such as demand-side management and energy efficiency programs.