Entergy Corporation Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.60 (NYSE:ETR)

Key Points

• Entergy Corporation declared a quarterly dividend of $0.60 per share, with the payment scheduled for September 2nd to investors recorded by August 13th.
• The company's annualized dividend of $2.40 represents a yield of 2.72% and is deemed well-covered by earnings, with a payout ratio of 55.2%.
• Entergy's stock recently traded at $88.21, with a market capitalization of $38 billion and a PE ratio of 28.64.
• Analysts have varying target prices for Entergy, with JPMorgan Chase increasing its target from $100 to $102 and Barclays reducing its target from $91 to $87.

Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, July 25th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 13th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%.

Entergy has a payout ratio of 55.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Entergy to earn $4.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.8%.

Entergy Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:ETR traded up $0.06 on Friday, hitting $88.21. 821,154 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,638,108. The stock has a market cap of $38.00 billion, a PE ratio of 28.64, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $82.83 and a 200-day moving average of $82.68. Entergy has a fifty-two week low of $56.00 and a fifty-two week high of $89.35.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Entergy had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 11.26%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Entergy will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Entergy

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Entergy stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR - Free Report) by 275.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,176 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 6,733 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in Entergy were worth $696,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Entergy from $100.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Entergy from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Entergy from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Barclays decreased their price target on Entergy from $91.00 to $87.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on Entergy from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $86.46.

About Entergy

Entergy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and retail distribution of electricity in the United States. It generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, including the City of New Orleans; and distributes natural gas.

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