State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Acquires 7,407 Shares of Ameren Corporation $AEE

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its stake in Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) by 8.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 90,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,407 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Ameren were worth $9,444,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its stake in Ameren by 70.9% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ameren by 6,040.0% during the second quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Ameren in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ameren by 728.9% in the 2nd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 315 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ameren by 49.0% during the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Michael L. Moehn sold 6,500 shares of Ameren 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 sale, the insider owned 193,076 shares in the company, valued at $20,002,673.60. The trade was a 3.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Mizuho set a $117.00 target price on Ameren in a report on Friday. Argus raised Ameren to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $108.00 target price on shares of Ameren in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. KeyCorp lowered shares of Ameren from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ameren from $111.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $111.30.

Ameren Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AEE opened at $110.49 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $29.89 billion, a PE ratio of 20.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Ameren Corporation has a twelve month low of $91.77 and a twelve month high of $112.66. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $102.30.

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

Ameren Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. This is a boost from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. Ameren’s payout ratio is presently 53.08%.

About Ameren

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.