Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Entergy (NYSE:ETR)

Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 4,518 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 147% compared to the average volume of 1,826 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Entergy

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Entergy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,393,000. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 74.3% in the fourth quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 7,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $603,000 after buying an additional 3,393 shares during the period. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC bought a new stake in shares of Entergy during the fourth quarter worth $217,000. Avior Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Entergy by 324.3% during the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 561 shares during the period. Finally, Braun Stacey Associates Inc. lifted its position in Entergy by 88.8% in the 4th quarter. Braun Stacey Associates Inc. now owns 360,502 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,333,000 after acquiring an additional 169,511 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

Entergy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ETR opened at $84.05 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $36.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Entergy has a fifty-two week low of $50.19 and a fifty-two week high of $88.38.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.03. Entergy had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 10.68%. The company had revenue of $2.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Entergy will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.86%. Entergy’s payout ratio is 98.77%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ETR has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Entergy from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com raised Entergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 29th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Entergy from $79.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Entergy from $165.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.75.

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.