628,335 Shares in Evergy Inc. $EVRG Bought by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 628,335 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,307,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fiduciary Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of Evergy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Evergy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $55,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Evergy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,992,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. acquired a new stake in Evergy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $421,000. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in Evergy during the second quarter worth about $187,857,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Evergy

In other news, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total transaction of $900,283.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 37,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,153,869.94. This trade represents a 22.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold 600 shares of Evergy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total value of $48,846.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,358.80. The trade was a 46.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 11,987 shares of company stock worth $998,471 in the last ninety days. 1.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Evergy Stock Performance

Shares of EVRG stock opened at $82.23 on Thursday. Evergy Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.42 and a 52 week high of $88.62. The company has a market capitalization of $18.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.87, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.36.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.36 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 15.19% and a return on equity of 9.20%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.82 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be given a $0.695 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $2.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.56%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on EVRG. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Evergy in a research report on Friday, August 7th. BTIG Research set a $97.00 price objective on Evergy in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Evergy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Evergy from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.60.

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.