Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR - Free Report) by 1.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 543,533 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 5,693 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.13% of Entergy worth $46,467,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in Entergy by 1,466.2% in the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 62,679 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $5,358,000 after purchasing an additional 58,677 shares during the last quarter. Rossby Financial LCC bought a new position in shares of Entergy in the 1st quarter worth approximately $87,000. Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 15.6% in the first quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 8,281 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $708,000 after buying an additional 1,119 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its position in Entergy by 3.1% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 50,934 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $4,354,000 after buying an additional 1,546 shares during the period. Finally, Mather Group LLC. increased its holdings in Entergy by 507.5% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 11,415 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $976,000 after buying an additional 9,536 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.07% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ETR shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Entergy from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. KeyCorp raised Entergy from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $85.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Entergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Entergy from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $86.25.

Entergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ETR traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $81.71. The stock had a trading volume of 1,744,246 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,568,184. The business's 50 day moving average price is $82.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $81.94. Entergy Corporation has a 1 year low of $52.07 and a 1 year high of $88.38. The company has a market cap of $35.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.53, a price-to-earnings-growth 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.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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 net margin of 11.26% and a return on equity of 11.43%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.54 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.