GF Fund Management CO. LTD. Raises Stake in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

GF Fund Management CO. LTD. raised its holdings in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR - Free Report) by 12,243.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,011 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 8,938 shares during the quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD.'s holdings in Entergy were worth $770,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ETR. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Entergy by 275.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 9,176 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $696,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Entergy by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 8,523 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $646,000 after acquiring an additional 566 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Entergy by 180.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,585 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $499,000 after acquiring an additional 4,236 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Entergy by 117.0% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,812 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $137,000 after acquiring an additional 977 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in shares of Entergy by 253.7% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 15,950 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,209,000 after acquiring an additional 11,441 shares in the last quarter. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on ETR. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Entergy from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Entergy in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Entergy from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Entergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $86.25.

Entergy Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of ETR stock traded up $0.83 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $82.15. 1,120,750 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,575,509. Entergy Corporation has a 1 year low of $52.07 and a 1 year high of $88.38. The stock has a market cap of $35.39 billion, a PE ratio of 26.67, a PEG ratio of 2.23 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's fifty day moving average price is $82.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.89.

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

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 2nd. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%. Entergy's payout ratio is 77.92%.

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.