Entergy Co. (NYSE:ETR) Short Interest Update

Entergy Co. (NYSE:ETR) saw a significant drop in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,800,000 shares, a drop of 6.3% from the October 15th total of 1,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,550,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.2 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Entergy news, EVP Marcus V. Brown sold 13,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.40, for a total transaction of $1,287,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $882,545.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Entergy

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ETR. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new position in shares of Entergy during the 1st quarter worth $29,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 637,493 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,429,000 after buying an additional 11,568 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 20.0% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 44,607 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,208,000 after buying an additional 7,434 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 52.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 189,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $22,074,000 after buying an additional 65,376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 37.7% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 288,794 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,717,000 after buying an additional 79,137 shares during the last quarter. 86.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Entergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ETR opened at $99.11 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.24, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.67. Entergy has a one year low of $87.10 and a one year high of $120.78. The company’s fifty day moving average is $95.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 1st. The utilities provider reported $3.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $3.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.22 billion. Entergy had a net margin of 11.56% and a return on equity of 10.77%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.84 EPS. Analysts forecast that Entergy will post 6.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $1.13 per share. This is a positive change from Entergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.07. This represents a $4.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 13th. Entergy’s payout ratio is presently 64.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ETR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Entergy from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $117.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, November 8th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Entergy from $113.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 3rd. UBS Group raised shares of Entergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $103.00 to $118.00 in a report on Monday, November 6th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Entergy from $98.00 to $94.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Entergy from $97.00 to $92.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $110.17.

About Entergy

Entergy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and retail distribution of electricity in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Utility and Entergy Wholesale Commodities. The Utility segment generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, including the City of New Orleans; and distributes natural gas.