7,811 Shares in Evergy Inc. $EVRG Bought by EP Wealth Advisors LLC

EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 7,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $675,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MidFirst Bank bought a new position in Evergy in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Evergy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new position in shares of Evergy during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc purchased a new position in shares of Evergy during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Evergy in the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. 87.24% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on EVRG shares. BTIG Research set a $97.00 target price on shares of Evergy in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Evergy from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Evergy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Evergy from $88.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $90.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Evergy news, Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold 761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.31, for a total transaction of $63,398.91. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,680 shares in the company, valued at $139,960.80. This represents a 31.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total transaction of $900,283.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 37,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,153,869.94. The trade was a 22.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,748 shares of company stock worth $1,061,870. 1.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Evergy Stock Performance

NASDAQ:EVRG opened at $81.39 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.66, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.54. The business has a 50 day moving average of $84.73 and a 200 day moving average of $82.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.21. Evergy Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.42 and a 1-year high of $88.62.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.36 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 15.19% and a return on equity of 9.20%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.82 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.695 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $2.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.56%.

Evergy Company Profile

Evergy, Inc is a regulated electric utility that generates, transmits and distributes electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers primarily across Kansas and western Missouri. The company provides core utility services including retail electric delivery, grid operations, customer service and outage restoration, operating under state regulatory frameworks. Evergy serves a mix of urban and rural communities, including portions of the Kansas City metropolitan area and other population centers in its service territory.

The company’s business activities span power generation, system planning, transmission and distribution infrastructure, and customer-facing programs such as energy efficiency and demand-side management.