Vontobel Holding Ltd. Boosts Position in NRG Energy, Inc. $NRG

Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its holdings in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) by 77.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 7,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,398 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in NRG Energy were worth $1,264,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NRG. Amundi lifted its position in NRG Energy by 772.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 4,378,022 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $406,342,000 after purchasing an additional 3,876,235 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 113.3% in the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 1,444,271 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $231,921,000 after buying an additional 767,014 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 289.1% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,023,168 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $97,672,000 after buying an additional 760,201 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 492.5% in the second quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 883,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $141,918,000 after buying an additional 734,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC grew its holdings in NRG Energy by 39.1% during the first quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 1,124,529 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $107,348,000 after acquiring an additional 316,075 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on NRG. Zacks Research lowered NRG Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of NRG Energy in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $211.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of NRG Energy from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of NRG Energy in a report on Monday, September 22nd. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $212.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of NRG Energy in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.21.

NRG Energy Trading Up 0.2%

NRG stock opened at $160.89 on Friday. NRG Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $79.57 and a 12-month high of $180.54. The business’s 50-day moving average is $165.34 and its 200 day moving average is $159.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.45. The stock has a market cap of $30.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.05 and a beta of 1.26.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $2.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.85. NRG Energy had a return on equity of 103.57% and a net margin of 4.84%.The business had revenue of $7.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NRG Energy, Inc. will post 6.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NRG Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. NRG Energy’s payout ratio is 26.31%.

NRG Energy announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, November 6th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the utilities provider to buy up to 9.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Virginia Kinney sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.82, for a total value of $3,276,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 43,191 shares in the company, valued at $7,075,549.62. This represents a 31.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NRG Energy Profile

NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) is a U.S.-based integrated power company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company develops, owns and operates a diversified portfolio of power generation assets and participates in wholesale and retail energy markets. NRG supplies electricity to utilities, commercial and industrial customers, and retail consumers, while also providing energy-related products and services designed to manage consumption and support reliability.

NRG’s generation mix includes conventional thermal plants as well as renewable and distributed energy resources.