Wall Street Zen Downgrades Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) to Sell

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Evergy to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Evergy in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Barclays reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Evergy in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Evergy from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Evergy to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.17.

Evergy Stock Performance

NASDAQ EVRG opened at $72.57 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.88, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.52. Evergy has a fifty-two week low of $59.67 and a fifty-two week high of $79.32.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Evergy had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 14.45%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.02 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Evergy will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Evergy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Evergy by 0.3% during the third quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 46,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,571,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Evergy by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 979 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Evergy by 1.9% during the third quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $603,000 after buying an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Evergy by 2.4% in the second quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 6,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $442,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC raised its position in shares of Evergy by 22.9% in the third quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 817 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

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.