Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 65,897 Shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 101.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 130,914 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 65,897 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Entergy were worth $9,926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ETR. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Entergy by 101.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,133,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,952,773,000 after purchasing an additional 26,312,267 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Entergy by 105.1% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,363,219 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $558,279,000 after acquiring an additional 3,773,492 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Entergy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $259,944,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Entergy by 53.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,718,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $754,318,000 after acquiring an additional 1,981,611 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in Entergy by 87.3% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,215,746 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $243,867,000 after purchasing an additional 1,498,693 shares in the last quarter. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ETR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Entergy from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. KeyCorp cut shares of Entergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Entergy from $165.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.75.

Entergy Price Performance

Shares of Entergy stock opened at $84.38 on Monday. 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 52-week low of $50.19 and a 52-week high of $88.38. The company has a fifty day moving average of $83.34 and a 200-day moving average of $75.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.74 billion during 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 period in the prior year, the business posted $0.26 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Entergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.77%.

About Entergy

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.