California Public Employees Retirement System Decreases Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its position in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,231,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,540 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.46% of Ameren worth $109,783,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Ameren by 2.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,149,221,000 after purchasing an additional 334,752 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 1.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,672,164 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $581,661,000 after buying an additional 127,287 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Ameren by 0.9% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,561,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $398,992,000 after buying an additional 39,300 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Ameren by 59.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,631,580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $230,158,000 after buying an additional 984,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Ameren by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,696,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $151,256,000 after acquiring an additional 43,289 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on AEE. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Evercore ISI raised Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Ameren from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ameren from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Ameren from $106.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ameren news, Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.27, for a total transaction of $266,901.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,424,423.65. The trade was a 15.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total transaction of $492,275.97. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,966,471.94. This represents a 7.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 12,959 shares of company stock worth $1,316,712. Corporate insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of AEE stock opened at $100.69 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $97.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $92.20. Ameren Co. has a 12-month low of $69.39 and a 12-month high of $104.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 EPS 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 in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th were issued a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. Ameren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.25%.

About Ameren

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.