Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $82.75.

EVRG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded Evergy to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Evergy to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Evergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Barclays reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Evergy in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Evergy from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Evergy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EVRG. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Evergy by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,966,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,134,540,000 after buying an additional 521,310 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Evergy by 2.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,257,857 shares of the company’s stock valued at $429,677,000 after acquiring an additional 170,953 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Evergy by 4.3% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,058,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,534,000 after acquiring an additional 251,027 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in Evergy by 0.5% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,702,734 shares of the company’s stock worth $281,482,000 after acquiring an additional 17,592 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Evergy by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,760,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $209,853,000 after purchasing an additional 263,619 shares during the last quarter. 87.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Evergy Price Performance

EVRG opened at $72.82 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.95, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.67. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $74.60 and a 200-day moving average of $73.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. Evergy has a 12-month low of $59.67 and a 12-month high of $79.32.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 14.45% and a return on equity of 8.66%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Evergy will post 3.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 21st were paid a $0.695 dividend. This represents a $2.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. This is an increase from Evergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 21st. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 76.16%.

About Evergy

Evergy, Inc is a regulated electric utility that generates, transmits and distributes electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers primarily across Kansas and western Missouri. The company provides core utility services including retail electric delivery, grid operations, customer service and outage restoration, operating under state regulatory frameworks. Evergy serves a mix of urban and rural communities, including portions of the Kansas City metropolitan area and other population centers in its service territory.

The company’s business activities span power generation, system planning, transmission and distribution infrastructure, and customer-facing programs such as energy efficiency and demand-side management.