Wells Fargo & Company Raises NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) Price Target to $85.00

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) had its price objective boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $78.00 to $85.00 in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on NRG. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. TheStreet raised shares of NRG Energy from a c+ rating to a b rating in a research note on Friday, December 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of NRG Energy from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of NRG Energy from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of NRG Energy from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $59.50.

NRG Energy Stock Performance

NYSE NRG opened at $66.61 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -62.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.49. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.19. NRG Energy has a 1 year low of $30.52 and a 1 year high of $68.57.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $6.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.51 billion. NRG Energy had a negative net margin of 0.70% and a positive return on equity of 44.03%. As a group, research analysts expect that NRG Energy will post 5.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 1st were paid a dividend of $0.4075 per share. This represents a $1.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 31st. This is an increase from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -152.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Rasesh M. Patel sold 49,092 shares of NRG Energy stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.59, for a total transaction of $3,072,668.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 356,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,342,251.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NRG Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NRG. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in NRG Energy by 6.5% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 39,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,525,000 after purchasing an additional 2,422 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in NRG Energy by 12.7% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $589,000 after purchasing an additional 1,727 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in NRG Energy by 6.2% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 427,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,396,000 after purchasing an additional 24,792 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its holdings in NRG Energy by 6.6% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 32,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,257,000 after purchasing an additional 2,028 shares during the period. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its holdings in NRG Energy by 6.8% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 229,581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,243,000 after purchasing an additional 14,574 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

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.