Cohen & Steers Inc. Sells 190,056 Shares of Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Key Points

• Cohen & Steers Inc. reduced its Evergy stake by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 190,056 shares and leaving it with 2.12 million shares valued at about $153.8 million. Institutional investors still own a large majority of the stock at 87.24%.
• Wall Street sentiment remains positive: several firms lifted price targets or reiterated bullish ratings, and Evergy now has a consensus Moderate Buy rating with an average price target of $89.60.
• Evergy recently beat quarterly earnings expectations, reported stronger revenue year over year, and reaffirmed its growth outlook; it also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.695 per share, implying a 3.3% annualized yield.

Cohen & Steers Inc. trimmed its position in Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG - Free Report) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,122,228 shares of the company's stock after selling 190,056 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. owned approximately 0.92% of Evergy worth $153,840,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd acquired a new position in Evergy during the 3rd quarter valued at about $72,860,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in Evergy by 122.4% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 811,202 shares of the company's stock worth $58,804,000 after purchasing an additional 446,400 shares in the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new stake in Evergy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,644,000. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in Evergy by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,847,410 shares of the company's stock worth $133,919,000 after purchasing an additional 408,452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verbena Value LP bought a new stake in Evergy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,104,000. 87.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on EVRG. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Evergy from $89.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. BTIG Research began coverage on Evergy in a report on Thursday, April 9th. They set a "buy" rating and a $99.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings raised Evergy from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Evergy from $89.00 to $88.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Evergy from $82.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, March 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $89.60.

Insider Activity

In other Evergy news, Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total transaction of $48,846.00. Following the sale, the director owned 680 shares in the company, valued at $55,358.80. This represents a 46.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 1,961 shares of company stock worth $161,587 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.52% of the company's stock.

Evergy Price Performance

Evergy stock opened at $83.85 on Friday. Evergy Inc. has a 12 month low of $66.19 and a 12 month high of $85.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $82.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.21. The company has a market cap of $19.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.24, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.54.

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

Evergy Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.695 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 22nd. This represents a $2.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Evergy's dividend payout ratio is currently 73.74%.

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.

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