Mizuho Raises Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) Price Target to $77.00

Key Points

• Mizuho has raised its target price for Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) from $74.00 to $77.00, projecting a potential upside of 5.67% from its current price and maintaining an "outperform" rating.
• Two other firms, Citigroup and UBS Group, have also increased their target prices for Evergy, now set at $79.00 and $78.00, respectively, with both recommending "buy" ratings.
• Evergy's recent earnings report showed an EPS of $0.82, exceeding expectations, while its revenue for the quarter was slightly down 0.7% year-over-year.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG - Free Report) had its target price lifted by Mizuho from $74.00 to $77.00 in a research note published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Mizuho currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on EVRG. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Evergy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $78.00 price target on shares of Evergy and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Evergy to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Evergy from $73.00 to $71.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Evergy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $68.00 to $78.00 in a report on Monday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $74.44.

Evergy Price Performance

Shares of Evergy stock traded down $0.45 during trading on Friday, reaching $72.42. 2,644,676 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,596,143. The company has a market capitalization of $16.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.29. Evergy has a 52-week low of $57.28 and a 52-week high of $73.97.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.45 billion. Evergy had a return on equity of 8.62% and a net margin of 14.29%. The business's quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Evergy will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 22nd will be paid a $0.6675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.67 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. Evergy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.35%.

Institutional Trading of Evergy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Evergy by 2.8% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Evergy during the first quarter valued at approximately $212,132,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Evergy by 16.7% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,737,480 shares of the company's stock valued at $188,749,000 after acquiring an additional 392,361 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its stake in shares of Evergy by 44.4% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,470,917 shares of the company's stock valued at $170,320,000 after acquiring an additional 760,301 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Evergy by 1,418.7% during the second quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,364,493 shares of the company's stock valued at $162,985,000 after acquiring an additional 2,208,799 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.24% of the company's stock.

Evergy Company Profile

Evergy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the United States. The company generates electricity through coal, landfill gas, uranium, and natural gas and oil sources, as well as solar, wind, other renewable sources. It serves residences, commercial firms, industrials, municipalities, and other electric utilities.