West Michigan Advisors LLC Takes Position in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG)

West Michigan Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 4,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $419,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NRG Energy by 6.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,399,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $494,225,000 after buying an additional 313,478 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A. lifted its position in NRG Energy by 0.9% during the third quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 2,820,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $256,948,000 after buying an additional 24,834 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in NRG Energy by 7.4% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,663,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $242,639,000 after buying an additional 182,481 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in NRG Energy by 1,010.1% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,557,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $140,504,000 after buying an additional 1,417,057 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in NRG Energy by 52.2% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,330,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $121,227,000 after buying an additional 456,573 shares during the period. 97.72% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NRG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded NRG Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded NRG Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $93.00 to $113.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on NRG Energy from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Evercore ISI upgraded NRG Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $126.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on NRG Energy from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NRG Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.14.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Bruce Chung sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.63, for a total value of $1,952,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 69,454 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,780,794.02. This trade represents a 22.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Robert J. Gaudette sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.41, for a total value of $5,484,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 64,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,891,191.68. This represents a 48.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

NRG Energy Price Performance

NRG stock opened at $105.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.57, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.17. NRG Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $54.12 and a 1 year high of $117.26. The firm has a market cap of $21.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.15. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $102.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $93.63.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. This is a positive change from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.22%.

About NRG Energy

NRG Energy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy and home services company in the United States and Canada. It operates through Texas; East; West/Services/Other; Vivint Smart Home; and Corporate Activities segments. The company produces and sells electricity generated using coal, oil, solar, and battery storage; natural gas; and a cloud-based home platform, including hardware, software, sales, installation, customer service, technical support, and professional monitoring solutions.