Federated Hermes Inc. Increases Stock Position in Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG)

Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) by 41.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,942,415 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 860,433 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Evergy were worth $153,594,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Evergy by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 14,198 shares of the company’s stock valued at $969,000 after acquiring an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,206 shares of the company’s stock worth $246,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 30.5% in the 4th quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 855 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in Evergy by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 73,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,816,000 after buying an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $280,000 after buying an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Evergy from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Bank of America raised shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Evergy in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $64.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Evergy from $60.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Guggenheim cut shares of Evergy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Evergy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.00.

Evergy Stock Performance

EVRG traded down $0.08 on Thursday, hitting $50.45. 391,726 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,577,834. The firm has a market cap of $11.59 billion, a PE ratio of 13.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.57. Evergy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $46.92 and a twelve month high of $63.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $51.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $50.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

Evergy (NYSE:EVRG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.46 billion. Evergy had a return on equity of 8.47% and a net margin of 13.28%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.30 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Evergy, Inc. will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.6425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. This represents a $2.57 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.09%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 80.82%.

Evergy Company Profile

Evergy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the United States. The company generates electricity through coal, landfill gas, uranium, and natural gas and oil sources, as well as solar, wind, other renewable sources. It serves residences, commercial firms, industrials, municipalities, and other electric utilities.