Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) Sets New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $85.23 and last traded at $84.41, with a volume of 2803732 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $84.01.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EVRG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Evergy from $79.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. UBS Group lowered Evergy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $86.00 to $88.00 in a report on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Evergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Evergy from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Mizuho set a $82.00 target price on shares of Evergy in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.88.

Evergy Stock Up 0.5%

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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.61. The company has a market cap of $19.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.65.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last released its earnings results on Saturday, January 31st. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter. Evergy had a return on equity of 8.79% and a net margin of 14.35%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Evergy Inc. will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a $0.695 dividend. This represents a $2.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. Evergy’s payout ratio is 75.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Evergy news, Director Ann D. Murtlow sold 2,847 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.34, for a total value of $234,421.98. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,311 shares in the company, valued at $190,287.74. This represents a 55.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Evergy

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of EVRG. Synergy Asset Management LLC raised its position in Evergy by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 148,940 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,322,000 after purchasing an additional 74,470 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Evergy during the 2nd quarter worth $246,000. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Evergy during the third quarter valued at $1,482,000. iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Evergy by 207.0% in the third quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 22,624 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,720,000 after acquiring an additional 15,254 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Davis Capital Management purchased a new stake in Evergy in the third quarter worth about $1,379,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.