Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) Stock Rated Buy in New Coverage at HSBC

HSBC assumed coverage on shares of Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) in a research note released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $92.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on EVRG. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Evergy from $92.00 to $86.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 19th. BTIG Research set a $94.00 price objective on shares of Evergy in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Evergy from $89.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Evergy in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Evergy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Evergy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.42.

Evergy Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:EVRG opened at $84.43 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $19.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.43, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.50. Evergy has a 12-month low of $71.40 and a 12-month high of $88.62. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $81.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.36 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 15.19% and a return on equity of 9.20%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.82 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Evergy will post 4.26 EPS for the current year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th were given a dividend of $0.6950 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $2.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Evergy news, Director Jonathan Rolph acquired 1,640 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $81.47 per share, for a total transaction of $133,610.80. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 670 shares in the company, valued at $54,584.90. This trade represents a -169.07% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Evergy

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Magellan Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Evergy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $187,857,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Evergy in the second quarter valued at $138,233,000. Energy Income Partners LLC purchased a new position in Evergy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $110,394,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in Evergy during the second quarter worth approximately $54,307,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in shares of Evergy during the second quarter worth $53,210,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Evergy Company Profile

Evergy, Inc is an investor-owned electric utility that generates, transmits, distributes and sells electricity to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers. The company operates regulated utilities in Kansas and Missouri, providing electric service through its Kansas Central, Kansas South, Missouri Metro and Missouri West operations.

Evergy’s generation portfolio includes wind, solar, coal, natural gas and nuclear power. The company also owns an interest in the Wolf Creek Generating Station, a nuclear power plant in Kansas, and continues to invest in renewable energy, grid modernization and other infrastructure intended to support reliable electricity service.

Evergy was formed in 2018 through the merger of Westar Energy and Great Plains Energy, the parent company of Kansas City Power & Light.