QRG Capital Management Inc. Decreases Position in Evergy Inc. $EVRG

QRG Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 47.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 167,801 shares of the company’s stock after selling 153,519 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.07% of Evergy worth $12,756,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Magellan Asset Management Ltd boosted its stake in Evergy by 1,418.7% in the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,364,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,985,000 after purchasing an additional 2,208,799 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Evergy by 969.3% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,329,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,063,000 after buying an additional 1,205,101 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its stake in shares of Evergy by 44.4% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,470,917 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,320,000 after buying an additional 760,301 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Evergy by 1.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,966,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,134,540,000 after buying an additional 521,310 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Evergy by 2,959.7% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 534,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,847,000 after buying an additional 517,087 shares during the last quarter. 87.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on EVRG shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Evergy in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Evergy from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Evergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $76.00 price target (down previously from $86.00) on shares of Evergy in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Evergy from $79.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.75.

Evergy Trading Up 0.9%

Evergy stock opened at $76.44 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $17.60 billion, a PE ratio of 20.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.67. Evergy Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.94 and a 12 month high of $79.32. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $74.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.14 by ($0.11). Evergy had a net margin of 14.45% and a return on equity of 8.66%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Evergy Inc. will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Evergy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 21st were paid a dividend of $0.695 per share. This represents a $2.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 21st. This is an increase from Evergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.16%.

Evergy Company Profile

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.