Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. Has $27.83 Million Stock Position in Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its position in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 383,913 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,843 shares during the period. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Evergy were worth $27,830,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Evergy by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,447,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $465,684,000 after buying an additional 105,842 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Evergy by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,091,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $441,574,000 after buying an additional 33,457 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Evergy by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,760,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,602,000 after buying an additional 57,814 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Evergy by 10.6% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,760,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $209,853,000 after buying an additional 263,619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Evergy by 3.4% during the third quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,444,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,822,000 after buying an additional 79,888 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Evergy

In other news, Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold 761 shares of Evergy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.31, for a total transaction of $63,398.91. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $139,960.80. This trade represents a 31.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of Evergy stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total value of $900,283.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 37,789 shares in the company, valued at $3,153,869.94. The trade was a 22.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,748 shares of company stock worth $1,061,870. Company insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. BTIG Research assumed coverage on Evergy in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $99.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company set a $87.00 price target on Evergy in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. UBS Group raised their price target on Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Evergy from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Evergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Evergy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.60.

Evergy Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ EVRG opened at $83.97 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.45. Evergy Inc. has a 52 week low of $66.19 and a 52 week high of $85.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.27, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $82.42 and its 200 day moving average is $79.32.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.06. Evergy had a return on equity of 9.09% and a net margin of 14.63%.The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. Evergy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.340 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 22nd will be given a $0.695 dividend. This represents a $2.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 22nd. Evergy’s payout ratio is currently 73.74%.

Evergy Company Profile

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.