In a recent disclosure to the Securities & Exchange Commission, &Tradewinds LLC has revealed that it has bought a new position in shares of Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) during the first quarter. The fund purchased 3,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000. This news comes as the energy company recently reported its earnings results for the first quarter.
On May 5th, Evergy announced that it had earned $0.59 per share for the quarter; this exceeded the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.03. The company had a net margin of 13.03% and a return on equity of 9.13%. Moreover, its Q1 revenue amounted to $1.30 billion as opposed to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion.
The fact that Evrg outperformed market forecasts during a challenging time is testimony to its resilience and commitment towards delivering sustainable energy solutions even in unpredictable situations.
Several financial experts have closely tracked Evergy’s performance recently and have shared their opinions regarding its potential prospects for growth. Bank of America boosted their price target on EVRG stock from $55.00 to $59.00 while assigning an “underperform” rating on April 14th earlier this year. Meanwhile, TheStreet downgraded Evergy from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in February stating concerns regarding the company’s declining rating based on previous quarters’ earnings releases.
According to Bloomberg.com sources, most research analysts have assigned EVRG with a “Hold” rating along with having an average price target of $62.20.
Overall, it remains interesting how much shareholding decisions by large investment funds are still affecting stock prices significantly even in 2023 – something which should not be overlooked if one wants to make well-informed investment decisions in these volatile times!
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Investor Interest Surges in Energy Giant Evergy despite Negative Ratings
Evergy, Inc., a leading energy company in the United States, has been stirred with recent investor activity. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns over 93 million shares of Evergy stock worth nearly $5.9 billion after a drastic increase in their position during the fourth quarter of 2022. A similar trend was seen with Millennium Management LLC, and Deutsche Bank AG which increased their positions by 984% and 377%, respectively over that same period of time. State Street Corp and Gibson Wealth Advisors LLC also contributed to an institutional ownership of 83.74% of the company’s stock. Despite this surge in investment interest, Evergy has faced challenges from multiple analysts who have rated its stock negatively or as “hold” according to Bloomberg.com. The company has a market cap of $13.62 billion and has experienced predictable fluctuations within recent months, opening at $59.31 on June 19th, 2023. Additionally, Evergy recently declared a quarterly dividend representing an annualized dividend payout ratio of approximately $2.45 per share with a yield of 4.13%. There have also been insider sales reported within Evergy where Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold over two thousand shares in May alone while Senior Vice President Lesley Lissette Elwell sold over one thousand in late May as well; however overall insider ownership remains at almost a third of the company’s total usage.