National Bank of Canada FI Increases Position in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG)

National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) by 101.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 273,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 137,476 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in NRG Energy were worth $24,688,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NRG. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 6.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,399,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $494,225,000 after buying an additional 313,478 shares during the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. boosted its position in shares of NRG Energy by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 2,828,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $255,142,000 after acquiring an additional 7,500 shares during the last quarter. Appaloosa LP grew its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 81.5% in the fourth quarter. Appaloosa LP now owns 1,815,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $163,749,000 after purchasing an additional 815,180 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in NRG Energy by 1,010.1% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,557,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $140,504,000 after purchasing an additional 1,417,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. raised its stake in NRG Energy by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,374,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $123,984,000 after purchasing an additional 41,094 shares during the period. 97.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NRG Energy news, CFO Bruce Chung sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.63, for a total value of $1,952,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,454 shares in the company, valued at $6,780,794.02. The trade was a 22.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on NRG shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of NRG Energy from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on NRG Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com lowered NRG Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 8th. Evercore ISI raised NRG Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $126.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of NRG Energy from $134.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $123.29.

NRG Energy Price Performance

NRG opened at $92.78 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $100.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $96.06. NRG Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.11 and a 12-month high of $117.26. The firm has a market cap of $18.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.31, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.57.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.44 dividend. This is a positive change from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.90%. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.92%.

NRG Energy 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.