Janus Henderson Group PLC Cuts Stake in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG)

Janus Henderson Group PLC lowered its position in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) by 33.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 711,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 365,291 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned approximately 0.34% of NRG Energy worth $48,154,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 2.8% in the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 5,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $393,000 after buying an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 0.8% in the first quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,267 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,575,000 after buying an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 0.5% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 39,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,689,000 after buying an additional 181 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 12,749 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $659,000 after purchasing an additional 212 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 35.4% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on NRG shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on NRG Energy from $73.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on NRG Energy from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on NRG Energy from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.14.

NRG Energy Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:NRG traded down $1.00 on Tuesday, hitting $73.33. 1,628,963 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,540,709. NRG Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.97 and a 52 week high of $87.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.61. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.28. The company has a market cap of $15.29 billion, a PE ratio of 10.53 and a beta of 1.08.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.12). NRG Energy had a net margin of 5.76% and a return on equity of 42.60%. The company had revenue of $7.43 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts expect that NRG Energy, Inc. will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current year.

NRG Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.4075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $1.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.22%. NRG Energy’s payout ratio is presently 23.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Rasesh M. Patel sold 24,546 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.41, for a total transaction of $2,047,381.86. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 266,064 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,192,398.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.86% of the company’s stock.

NRG Energy Company Profile

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.