Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $57.83.

EVRG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on Evergy in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $64.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America raised Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Evergy from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 10th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on Evergy in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $51.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Evergy from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Evergy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Evergy by 0.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,046,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,657,253,000 after buying an additional 288,913 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in Evergy by 1,038.7% in the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,612,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,557,000 after buying an additional 3,294,967 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Evergy by 41.3% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,942,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,594,000 after buying an additional 860,433 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its stake in Evergy by 5.3% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,686,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,787,000 after buying an additional 134,236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Evergy by 11.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,670,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $135,415,000 after buying an additional 277,892 shares during the last quarter. 87.24% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Evergy Stock Performance

Shares of Evergy stock opened at $52.46 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $53.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.16. The company has a market capitalization of $12.06 billion, a PE ratio of 16.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Evergy has a 52 week low of $46.92 and a 52 week high of $61.84.

Evergy (NYSE:EVRG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by ($0.07). Evergy had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 12.84%. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. Evergy’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Evergy will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.6425 per share. This represents a $2.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. Evergy’s payout ratio is currently 83.17%.

Evergy Company Profile

Evergy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the United States. The company generates electricity through coal, landfill gas, uranium, and natural gas and oil sources, as well as solar, wind, other renewable sources. It serves residences, commercial firms, industrials, municipalities, and other electric utilities.