Cetera Investment Advisers Increases Stake in Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG)

Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 66,536 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,741 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Evergy were worth $4,095,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EVRG. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in Evergy by 84.6% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 7,975 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,000 after purchasing an additional 3,654 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Evergy in the fourth quarter valued at $49,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Evergy by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $658,000 after purchasing an additional 2,004 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in Evergy by 15,406.4% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 921,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,721,000 after buying an additional 915,603 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Evergy during the 4th quarter valued at $214,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on EVRG shares. Guggenheim upgraded Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays boosted their target price on Evergy from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Evergy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of Evergy in a research note on Tuesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $75.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group raised Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Evergy currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $71.50.

Evergy Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of NASDAQ EVRG opened at $65.70 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.55. Evergy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $52.10 and a 1 year high of $70.36. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.87. The firm has a market cap of $15.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.76, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.53.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last announced 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 14.77% and a return on equity of 8.77%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Evergy, Inc. will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.6675 per share. This represents a $2.67 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 70.26%.

About Evergy

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.