Stephens Inc. AR Invests $260,000 in Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG)

Stephens Inc. AR bought a new position in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $260,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of EVRG. Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Evergy during the first quarter valued at $267,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at $1,728,000. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at $257,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Evergy by 124.3% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,068 shares of the company’s stock valued at $419,000 after buying an additional 3,363 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Evergy by 9.1% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 36,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,500,000 after buying an additional 3,014 shares during the period. 87.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on EVRG shares. UBS Group raised Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $68.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Monday, April 28th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Evergy in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $75.00 price target for the company. Citigroup raised their price target on Evergy from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Barclays cut their price target on Evergy from $73.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Evergy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.06.

Evergy Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of EVRG stock opened at $68.90 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.13, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.50. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.55. Evergy Inc. has a twelve month low of $55.13 and a twelve month high of $70.36.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 14.87% and a return on equity of 8.84%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.54 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Evergy Inc. will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.6675 per share. This represents a $2.67 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.88%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 23rd. Evergy’s payout ratio is presently 70.26%.

Evergy Company Profile

Evergy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the United States. The company generates electricity through coal, landfill gas, uranium, and natural gas and oil sources, as well as solar, wind, other renewable sources. It serves residences, commercial firms, industrials, municipalities, and other electric utilities.