Brandes Investment Partners LP Purchases Shares of 904,180 Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG)

Brandes Investment Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 904,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,652,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Evergy by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,532,719 shares of the company’s stock worth $330,469,000 after acquiring an additional 288,619 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Evergy by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,085,401 shares of the company’s stock valued at $189,906,000 after purchasing an additional 256,978 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 25.8% during the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,848,735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,650,000 after purchasing an additional 583,923 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Evergy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,160,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,978,000 after buying an additional 25,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Evergy by 131.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,004,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,294,000 after buying an additional 1,138,138 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on EVRG shares. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $68.50 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Evergy from $62.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.42.

Evergy Price Performance

EVRG opened at $67.45 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $64.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $15.51 billion, a PE ratio of 18.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.62. Evergy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $49.55 and a 1 year high of $69.93.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.11). Evergy had a return on equity of 8.77% and a net margin of 14.77%. The company had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Evergy, Inc. will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.6675 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $2.67 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.96%. Evergy’s payout ratio is 70.45%.

Evergy Profile

Evergy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the United States. The company generates electricity through coal, landfill gas, uranium, and natural gas and oil sources, as well as solar, wind, other renewable sources. It serves residences, commercial firms, industrials, municipalities, and other electric utilities.