Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Increases Stock Position in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 107.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 66,126 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,181 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Entergy were worth $5,014,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ETR. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 53.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,718,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $754,318,000 after acquiring an additional 1,981,611 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 139.5% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,423,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $183,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,411,473 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 105.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,748,828 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $208,416,000 after acquiring an additional 1,408,476 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 60.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,589,727 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $472,444,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354,355 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Entergy during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $101,133,000. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ETR. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Entergy from $165.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Entergy from $85.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Entergy from $72.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Entergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, December 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.11.

Entergy Stock Performance

Shares of Entergy stock opened at $85.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $36.59 billion, a PE ratio of 34.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72. Entergy Corporation has a 1 year low of $50.19 and a 1 year high of $88.38.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.24 billion. Entergy had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 10.68%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.77%.

Entergy Profile

Entergy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and retail distribution of electricity in the United States. It generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, including the City of New Orleans; and distributes natural gas.