Perpetual Ltd Sells 5,112 Shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Perpetual Ltd decreased its position in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR - Free Report) by 1.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 492,130 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 5,112 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd owned approximately 0.11% of Entergy worth $42,072,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ETR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Entergy by 101.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,133,646 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $3,952,773,000 after acquiring an additional 26,312,267 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Entergy by 142.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 17,594,747 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,334,034,000 after purchasing an additional 10,347,926 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Entergy by 90.7% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,612,407 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $956,273,000 after purchasing an additional 5,998,760 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Entergy by 71.4% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,884,421 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $976,895,000 after purchasing an additional 5,368,396 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Entergy by 106.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,236,816 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $774,103,000 after purchasing an additional 5,271,559 shares during the period. 88.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ETR. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Entergy from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Entergy from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Entergy from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $85.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of Entergy in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $86.25.

Entergy Price Performance

Shares of Entergy stock traded up $0.64 on Friday, hitting $82.50. 3,221,418 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,588,391. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.82. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.50. Entergy Corporation has a 52 week low of $52.07 and a 52 week high of $88.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.59.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The utilities provider reported $0.82 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Entergy had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 11.26%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 2nd were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 2nd. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.91%. Entergy's dividend payout ratio is currently 77.92%.

Entergy Company Profile

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.