Greenleaf Trust Buys 864 Shares of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG)

Greenleaf Trust raised its stake in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) by 11.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,357 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 864 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in NRG Energy were worth $432,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NRG. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of NRG Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its position in shares of NRG Energy by 1,005.5% in the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 734 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of NRG Energy by 35.4% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of NRG Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $57,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of NRG Energy by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,000 after buying an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Rasesh M. Patel sold 49,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.59, for a total value of $3,072,668.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 356,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,342,251.58. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NRG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $51.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, TheStreet raised NRG Energy from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Friday, December 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.50.

NRG Energy Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NRG opened at $71.49 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.49, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $63.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.69. NRG Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.52 and a 52 week high of $76.54.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $6.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.51 billion. NRG Energy had a positive return on equity of 44.03% and a negative net margin of 0.70%. On average, analysts forecast that NRG Energy, Inc. will post 5.36 earnings per share for the current year.

NRG Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a $0.4075 dividend. This represents a $1.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently -152.34%.

NRG Energy Company Profile

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.