Federated Hermes Inc. Decreases Stock Position in NRG Energy, Inc. $NRG

Federated Hermes Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) by 15.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 570,423 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 102,729 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned approximately 0.29% of NRG Energy worth $92,380,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Aviva PLC boosted its holdings in NRG Energy by 9.7% in the second quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 155,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,953,000 after acquiring an additional 13,757 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 68.2% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 251,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,364,000 after purchasing an additional 101,922 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of NRG Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $418,000. Trek Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NRG Energy during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,368,000. Finally, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in NRG Energy during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,268,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on NRG shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of NRG Energy from $202.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. UBS Group assumed coverage on NRG Energy in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $211.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on NRG Energy from $198.00 to $181.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded NRG Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $184.91.

Insider Activity at NRG Energy

In other NRG Energy news, VP Virginia Kinney sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.82, for a total transaction of $3,276,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 43,191 shares in the company, valued at $7,075,549.62. This represents a 31.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Brian Curci sold 46,976 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.84, for a total value of $7,461,667.84. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 46,113 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,324,588.92. This represents a 50.46% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 192,556 shares of company stock worth $30,826,846 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

NRG Energy Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE:NRG opened at $155.20 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $29.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.20 and a beta of 1.25. NRG Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $79.57 and a one year high of $180.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.45, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $158.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $159.84.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $2.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.85. The company had revenue of $7.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.53 billion. NRG Energy had a return on equity of 103.57% and a net margin of 4.84%.NRG Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NRG Energy, Inc. will post 6.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 2nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. This is an increase from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.31%.

NRG Energy announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, November 6th that allows the company to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the utilities provider to reacquire up to 9.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

NRG Energy Profile

NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) is a U.S.-based integrated power company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company develops, owns and operates a diversified portfolio of power generation assets and participates in wholesale and retail energy markets. NRG supplies electricity to utilities, commercial and industrial customers, and retail consumers, while also providing energy-related products and services designed to manage consumption and support reliability.

NRG’s generation mix includes conventional thermal plants as well as renewable and distributed energy resources.