Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Purchases Shares of 71,308 Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 71,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,163,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. MidFirst Bank purchased a new position in shares of Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Knuff & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Evergy in the second quarter worth $30,000. Burk Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Evergy in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc bought a new stake in Evergy in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new position in Evergy during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. 87.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Evergy Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of Evergy stock opened at $81.52 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.21. The company has a 50-day moving average of $84.50 and a 200 day moving average of $83.04. The firm has a market cap of $18.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.69, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.53. Evergy Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.42 and a 1 year high of $88.62.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.07. Evergy had a net margin of 15.19% and a return on equity of 9.20%. The business had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Evergy

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EVRG has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group upped 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. Citigroup boosted their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Evergy from $88.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. BTIG Research set a $97.00 price objective on shares of Evergy in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Evergy in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Evergy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $90.60.

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.