NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $83.25.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NRG. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on NRG Energy from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on NRG Energy in a research note on Friday, September 13th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $82.00 price target on the stock. Guggenheim lifted their price target on NRG Energy from $77.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered NRG Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 2nd.

NRG Energy Price Performance

NRG Energy stock opened at $87.52 on Friday. NRG Energy has a one year low of $41.49 and a one year high of $96.40. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $85.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $80.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.51, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The firm has a market cap of $18.25 billion, a PE ratio of 12.40 and a beta of 1.10.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The utilities provider reported $3.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $1.82. NRG Energy had a return on equity of 43.69% and a net margin of 7.19%. The company had revenue of $6.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.32 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that NRG Energy will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NRG Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.4075 per share. This represents a $1.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. NRG Energy’s payout ratio is presently 23.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NRG Energy news, insider Rasesh M. Patel sold 102,603 shares of NRG Energy stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.35, for a total transaction of $8,244,151.05. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 163,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,151,688. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.86% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 885.4% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 237,444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,073,000 after purchasing an additional 213,347 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 148.6% in the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 21,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,477,000 after purchasing an additional 13,040 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 104.5% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 73,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,000,000 after purchasing an additional 37,750 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 65.8% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,596,684 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,318,000 after purchasing an additional 633,765 shares during the period. Finally, Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of NRG Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $746,000. 97.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About NRG Energy

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.