Geneos Wealth Management Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG)

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 71.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,678 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,115 shares during the quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Evergy were worth $165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in Evergy during the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Evergy by 47.1% during the 3rd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 531 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Evergy during the third quarter valued at $51,000. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in shares of Evergy in the fourth quarter valued at about $73,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Evergy by 230.0% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 966 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Evergy from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Guggenheim raised shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho initiated coverage on Evergy in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $67.00 target price on the stock. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $68.50 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Evergy from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.36.

Evergy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EVRG opened at $64.25 on Friday. Evergy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $48.04 and a fifty-two week high of $65.47. The company has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a PE ratio of 17.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.80.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 14.77% and a return on equity of 8.77%. Evergy’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.88 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Evergy, Inc. will post 3.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a $0.6675 dividend. This is a positive change from Evergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $2.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.16%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Evergy

In other news, EVP Kevin E. Bryant sold 48,141 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.93, for a total value of $3,029,513.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1 shares in the company, valued at $62.93. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.