Royal Bank of Canada Grows Stock Holdings in Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 5.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 273,184 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,364 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in Evergy were worth $22,381,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of EVRG. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Evergy by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,447,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $465,684,000 after buying an additional 105,842 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Evergy by 0.6% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Evergy by 1.6% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Evergy by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,760,494 shares of the company’s stock valued at $209,853,000 after acquiring an additional 263,619 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in Evergy by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,847,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,919,000 after acquiring an additional 408,452 shares during the period. 87.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total value of $900,283.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 37,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,153,869.94. This represents a 22.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total value of $48,846.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,358.80. The trade was a 46.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 12,748 shares of company stock valued at $1,061,870 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

Evergy Price Performance

Shares of Evergy stock opened at $83.06 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.03, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.54. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $82.31. Evergy Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.42 and a 12 month high of $88.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.24.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.27 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 9.09%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.54 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EVRG has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays upped their target price on Evergy from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $87.00 price target on Evergy in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. BTIG Research set a $97.00 price objective on Evergy in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Evergy from $89.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.60.

Evergy 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.