Wasatch Advisors LP Takes Position in Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG)

Wasatch Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 63,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,393,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. bought a new stake in Evergy in the 4th quarter valued at $1,121,000. OLD Republic International Corp increased its holdings in Evergy by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. OLD Republic International Corp now owns 830,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,339,000 after acquiring an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Evergy by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 586,133 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,596,000 after acquiring an additional 46,437 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. bought a new stake in Evergy in the 4th quarter valued at $2,057,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Evergy by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,757,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,605,537,000 after acquiring an additional 1,399,199 shares during the last quarter. 87.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on EVRG. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Evergy from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of Evergy in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $51.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America raised shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Evergy from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on shares of Evergy in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $64.00 price objective for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.83.

Evergy Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of EVRG stock traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $52.79. 1,030,484 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,291,540. Evergy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $46.92 and a 12-month high of $61.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $53.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.60.

Evergy (NYSE:EVRG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.54 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. Evergy’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Evergy, Inc. will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.6425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.87%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.