Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Buys 50,199 Shares of Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its stake in Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 63.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 129,293 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,199 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc’s holdings in Evergy were worth $7,958,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new position in shares of Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. National Pension Service bought a new position in shares of Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust bought a new position in shares of Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Colonial Trust Co SC bought a new position in shares of Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Sandy Spring Bank boosted its stake in shares of Evergy by 5,983.3% during the fourth quarter. Sandy Spring Bank now owns 730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 718 shares in the last quarter. 87.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on EVRG shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Evergy from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Evergy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Evergy in a research report on Tuesday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $71.50.

Evergy Trading Down 0.9%

NASDAQ:EVRG opened at $64.76 on Wednesday. Evergy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $52.10 and a 52 week high of $70.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $67.30 and a 200 day moving average of $64.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.50, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.53.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Evergy had a net margin of 14.77% and a return on equity of 8.77%. The firm had revenue of $1.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.54 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Evergy, Inc. will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be issued a $0.6675 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $2.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.12%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 70.45%.

Evergy 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.