L & S Advisors Inc Acquires New Position in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG)

L & S Advisors Inc bought a new stake in shares of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 34,792 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,139,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in NRG Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $549,000. Meyer Handelman Co. increased its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 43.8% in the 4th quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 78,982 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,126,000 after acquiring an additional 24,062 shares during the last quarter. Luxor Capital Group LP raised its position in shares of NRG Energy by 47.8% in the 3rd quarter. Luxor Capital Group LP now owns 520,591 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,426,000 after acquiring an additional 168,267 shares during the period. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 25.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 50,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,557,000 after acquiring an additional 10,031 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new position in NRG Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,340,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Bruce Chung sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.63, for a total value of $1,952,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 69,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,780,794.02. The trade was a 22.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Robert J. Gaudette sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.41, for a total transaction of $5,484,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 64,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,891,191.68. This trade represents a 48.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.86% of the company’s stock.

NRG Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NRG Energy stock opened at $95.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.57, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $19.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $101.75 and its 200-day moving average is $95.69. NRG Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $65.11 and a one year high of $117.26.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.44 dividend. This is a boost from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. NRG Energy’s payout ratio is presently 35.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on NRG. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of NRG Energy from $134.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NRG Energy from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on NRG Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com lowered NRG Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded NRG Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $74.00 to $126.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $123.29.

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.