Hsbc Holdings PLC Purchases Shares of 614,758 Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 614,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,210,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. MidFirst Bank bought a new stake in shares of Evergy in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Knuff & Co LLC acquired a new position in Evergy in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Burk Holdings LLC acquired a new position in Evergy in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Prosperity Bancshares Inc bought a new stake in Evergy during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new stake in Evergy during the second quarter worth about $33,000. 87.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of Evergy stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total transaction of $900,283.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 37,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,153,869.94. The trade was a 22.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 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 company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total value of $48,846.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,358.80. This represents a 46.88% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 11,987 shares of company stock worth $998,471. 1.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on EVRG. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup raised their price target on Evergy from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. BTIG Research set a $97.00 price objective on Evergy in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on Evergy from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Evergy from $88.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Evergy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $90.60.

Evergy Stock Performance

Evergy stock opened at $82.23 on Thursday. Evergy Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.42 and a 1 year high of $88.62. The company’s 50-day moving average is $84.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $82.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The company has a market cap of $18.96 billion, a PE ratio of 20.87, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.54.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.07. Evergy had a net margin of 15.19% and a return on equity of 9.20%. The business had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.82 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.695 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $2.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Evergy’s payout ratio is presently 70.56%.

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.