Schroder Investment Management Group Reduces Stock Position in Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES)

Schroder Investment Management Group reduced its holdings in shares of Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) by 21.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,066 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 12,196 shares during the quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in Eversource Energy were worth $2,582,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ES. Allianz SE bought a new stake in Eversource Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,409,000. Allstate Corp bought a new stake in shares of Eversource Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $628,000. DnB Asset Management AS raised its position in shares of Eversource Energy by 76.8% during the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 285,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,402,000 after acquiring an additional 124,104 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new position in Eversource Energy during the fourth quarter worth $246,000. Finally, Slagle Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Eversource Energy by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Slagle Financial LLC now owns 87,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,048,000 after purchasing an additional 14,882 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Frederica M. Williams sold 3,092 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.26, for a total transaction of $192,507.92. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 22,671 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,411,496.46. This represents a 12.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Jay S. Buth sold 980 shares of Eversource Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.99, for a total transaction of $61,730.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 24,374 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,535,318.26. This trade represents a 3.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ES has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating on shares of Eversource Energy in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Eversource Energy from $52.00 to $47.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com lowered Eversource Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Eversource Energy from $79.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Eversource Energy from $72.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.44.

Eversource Energy Price Performance

Shares of ES opened at $58.48 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.58. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $60.73 and its 200-day moving average is $61.31. Eversource Energy has a one year low of $54.75 and a one year high of $69.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.01. Eversource Energy had a net margin of 6.82% and a return on equity of 10.99%. Equities analysts anticipate that Eversource Energy will post 4.75 EPS for the current year.

Eversource Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.7525 per share. This is a positive change from Eversource Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $3.01 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 4th. Eversource Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 130.30%.

About Eversource Energy

Eversource Energy, a public utility holding company, engages in the energy delivery business. The company operates through Electric Distribution, Electric Transmission, Natural Gas Distribution, and Water Distribution segments. It is involved in the transmission and distribution of electricity; solar power facilities; and distribution of natural gas.