Swiss National Bank Decreases Holdings in Entergy Co. (NYSE:ETR)

Swiss National Bank lowered its stake in shares of Entergy Co. (NYSE:ETR) by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 661,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 18,700 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Entergy were worth $66,907,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ETR. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 1.2% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 38,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,537,000 after acquiring an additional 467 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Entergy by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 14,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,492,000 after purchasing an additional 1,989 shares during the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Entergy by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 595,644 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,273,000 after buying an additional 9,696 shares in the last quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. raised its position in shares of Entergy by 28.9% in the fourth quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 159,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,129,000 after buying an additional 35,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Entergy by 464.4% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 12,044 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,114,000 after buying an additional 9,910 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ETR. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $117.00 price objective on shares of Entergy in a research note on Monday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Entergy from $110.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Entergy from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Entergy from $111.00 to $104.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Entergy from $108.00 to $107.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.45.

Entergy Stock Performance

NYSE ETR opened at $108.08 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $23.08 billion, a PE ratio of 10.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.69. Entergy Co. has a twelve month low of $87.10 and a twelve month high of $108.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.36). The company had revenue of $31.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.16 billion. Entergy had a return on equity of 10.20% and a net margin of 17.75%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.14 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Entergy Co. will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 2nd will be given a $1.13 dividend. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 1st. Entergy’s payout ratio is 45.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Marcus V. Brown sold 8,500 shares of Entergy stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.84, for a total value of $874,140.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,019,247.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Marcus V. Brown sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.84, for a total value of $874,140.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,019,247.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Deanna D. Rodriguez sold 1,500 shares of Entergy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.23, for a total transaction of $151,845.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 3,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $348,433.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,000 shares of company stock worth $1,226,685 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

About Entergy

Entergy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and retail distribution of electricity in the United States. It 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.