Legal & General Group Plc Makes New Investment in Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,599,359 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $138,233,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. MidFirst Bank purchased a new position in Evergy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Knuff & Co LLC bought a new stake in Evergy during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Burk Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Evergy during the second quarter worth $31,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Evergy during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new position in shares of Evergy in the second quarter worth $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on EVRG shares. BTIG Research set a $97.00 price target on Evergy in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Citigroup increased their price objective on Evergy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. UBS Group raised their target price on Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Evergy in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Evergy from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.60.

Insider Transactions at Evergy

In other news, Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total transaction of $48,846.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,358.80. The trade was a 46.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total transaction of $900,283.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 37,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,153,869.94. This trade represents a 22.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,587 shares of company stock valued at $965,655. Corporate insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

Evergy Stock Down 1.0%

EVRG opened at $81.42 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $84.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $82.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.21. Evergy Inc. has a one year low of $70.42 and a one year high of $88.62.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.36 billion. Evergy had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 15.19%.During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.82 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.695 per share. This represents a $2.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 18th. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.56%.

About Evergy

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.