Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. Has $53.23 Million Stock Position in Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 23.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 700,184 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 133,150 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.’s holdings in Evergy were worth $53,228,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of EVRG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Evergy by 1.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,966,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,134,540,000 after buying an additional 521,310 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Evergy by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,257,857 shares of the company’s stock valued at $429,677,000 after acquiring an additional 170,953 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,807,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,279,000 after purchasing an additional 118,124 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,685,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $254,017,000 after purchasing an additional 293,564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its position in Evergy by 44.4% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,470,917 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,320,000 after purchasing an additional 760,301 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on EVRG. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Evergy to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Evergy from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Evergy in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Evergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Finally, Barclays restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Evergy in a report on Thursday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.75.

Evergy Price Performance

NASDAQ:EVRG opened at $73.10 on Wednesday. Evergy Inc. has a 52 week low of $59.67 and a 52 week high of $79.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.52. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.31. The firm has a market cap of $16.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.67.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14 by ($0.11). Evergy had a return on equity of 8.66% and a net margin of 14.45%.The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.02 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Evergy Inc. will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Evergy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 21st were paid a dividend of $0.695 per share. This is a boost from Evergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 21st. This represents a $2.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio is 76.16%.

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.