Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Has $1.27 Million Stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System trimmed its stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,206 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,004 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Ameren were worth $1,266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AEE. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 10,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $907,000 after acquiring an additional 1,282 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 59.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,631,580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $230,158,000 after acquiring an additional 984,879 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 51.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,064,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,134,000 after acquiring an additional 362,772 shares in the last quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 265.0% during the 3rd quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC now owns 173,771 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,198,000 after acquiring an additional 126,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Ameren by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,149,221,000 after acquiring an additional 334,752 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Ameren Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE AEE opened at $98.89 on Friday. Ameren Co. has a 1-year low of $69.39 and a 1-year high of $104.10. The company has a market cap of $26.69 billion, a PE ratio of 22.37, a P/E/G 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. The company has a 50-day moving average of $96.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $91.51.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last announced 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 return on equity of 10.34% and a net margin of 15.51%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.87%. Ameren’s payout ratio is currently 64.25%.

Insider Transactions at Ameren

In other news, Director Craig S. Ivey sold 2,716 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now owns 14,495 shares in the company, valued at $1,424,423.65. The trade was a 15.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 5,500 shares of Ameren stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.37, for a total transaction of $557,535.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 43,344 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,393,781.28. This represents a 11.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,959 shares of company stock worth $1,316,712 in the last quarter. 0.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ameren 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.