Van ECK Associates Corp Grows Stake in Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 5.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 134,442 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,637 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned approximately 0.06% of Evergy worth $11,620,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Evergy by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,447,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $465,684,000 after buying an additional 105,842 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Evergy by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,091,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $441,574,000 after acquiring an additional 33,457 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Evergy by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,760,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,602,000 after acquiring an additional 57,814 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Evergy by 10.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,760,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $209,853,000 after acquiring an additional 263,619 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Evergy during the second quarter worth approximately $187,857,000. 87.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total value of $900,283.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 37,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,153,869.94. This represents a 22.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 1.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on EVRG shares. BTIG Research set a $97.00 price objective on Evergy in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Evergy from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Evergy in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Evergy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.60.

Evergy Stock Performance

NASDAQ EVRG opened at $81.02 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $84.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.36. Evergy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.42 and a fifty-two week high of $88.62.

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

Evergy Announces Dividend

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

Evergy 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.