First American Bank Makes New $1.98 Million Investment in NRG Energy, Inc. $NRG

First American Bank bought a new stake in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 12,247 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,983,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NRG. HM Payson & Co. raised its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 141.3% during the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Ethic Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 29.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 2,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $465,000 after purchasing an additional 655 shares during the last quarter. Three Seasons Wealth LLC bought a new stake in NRG Energy in the third quarter worth $566,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in NRG Energy by 5.1% during the third quarter. Optivise Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $270,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, KW Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of NRG Energy during the third quarter valued at about $504,000. Institutional investors own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NRG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Zacks Research lowered NRG Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of NRG Energy in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $211.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $198.00 price target on shares of NRG Energy in a report on Monday, October 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of NRG Energy in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.21.

Insider Activity at NRG Energy

In other news, VP Virginia Kinney sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.82, for a total transaction of $3,276,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 43,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,075,549.62. The trade was a 31.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NRG Energy Stock Performance

NRG stock opened at $160.85 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $165.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $160.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.45. NRG Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $79.57 and a 12-month high of $180.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.82 billion, a PE ratio of 24.04 and a beta of 1.26.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $2.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.85. NRG Energy had a return on equity of 103.57% and a net margin of 4.84%.The firm had revenue of $7.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that NRG Energy, Inc. will post 6.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NRG Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.31%.

NRG Energy declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, November 6th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the utilities provider to purchase up to 9.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

NRG Energy Company Profile

NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) is a U.S.-based integrated power company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company develops, owns and operates a diversified portfolio of power generation assets and participates in wholesale and retail energy markets. NRG supplies electricity to utilities, commercial and industrial customers, and retail consumers, while also providing energy-related products and services designed to manage consumption and support reliability.

NRG’s generation mix includes conventional thermal plants as well as renewable and distributed energy resources.