Analysts Set Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) Target Price at $87.75

Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $87.75.

Several research firms have recently commented on EVRG. UBS Group lowered shares of Evergy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $86.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Mizuho set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Evergy in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Evergy from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Evergy from $89.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Evergy in a research report on Monday, December 29th.

Evergy Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ EVRG opened at $79.41 on Friday. Evergy has a 12-month low of $61.94 and a 12-month high of $85.23. The company has a market cap of $18.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.62.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, January 31st. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter. Evergy had a return on equity of 8.79% and a net margin of 14.35%. Equities research analysts expect that Evergy will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.695 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $2.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Evergy’s payout ratio is presently 75.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Evergy news, Director Ann D. Murtlow sold 2,847 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.34, for a total transaction of $234,421.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,287.74. The trade was a 55.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Heather A. Humphrey sold 3,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.61, for a total value of $301,526.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 44,007 shares in the company, valued at $3,635,418.27. This trade represents a 7.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,937 shares of company stock worth $736,492. 1.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Evergy

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Evergy by 346.2% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,046,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,597,000 after acquiring an additional 1,588,100 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Evergy by 969.3% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,329,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,063,000 after acquiring an additional 1,205,101 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its holdings in Evergy by 476.6% during the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,207,882 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,559,000 after purchasing an additional 998,400 shares in the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd bought a new stake in Evergy during the third quarter worth approximately $72,860,000. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in Evergy by 169.2% in the third quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,438,958 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,390,000 after purchasing an additional 904,400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Evergy Company 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.