Morgan Stanley Increases NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) Price Target to $63.00

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) had its price objective increased by Morgan Stanley from $51.00 to $63.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

NRG has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Evercore ISI raised their target price on NRG Energy from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup raised their target price on NRG Energy from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com raised NRG Energy from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on NRG Energy from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on NRG Energy from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NRG Energy presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $59.50.

NRG Energy Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NRG stock opened at $67.69 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -63.26, a PEG ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.49, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.02. NRG Energy has a twelve month low of $30.52 and a twelve month high of $68.57.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $6.81 billion for 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that NRG Energy will post 5.66 EPS for the current year.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 1st were paid a $0.4075 dividend. This represents a $1.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.41%. This is a boost from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 31st. NRG Energy’s payout ratio is presently -152.34%.

Insider Transactions at NRG Energy

In other news, VP Rasesh M. Patel sold 49,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was 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 directly owns 356,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,342,251.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NRG Energy

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of NRG Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 734 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of NRG Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. bought a new position in shares of NRG Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

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.