NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• NRG Energy has a consensus analyst rating of “Moderate Buy” from 16 analysts, with 11 Buy ratings, 1 Strong Buy, and 4 Holds. The average 1-year price target is $197.80.
• Recent analyst actions were mixed: Barclays trimmed its target to $200 while keeping an overweight rating, while Siebert Williams Shank initiated coverage with a Buy and a $184 target. Other firms, including Raymond James and Williams Trading, also set targets around $184–$210.
• The company reported Q1 earnings of $1.48 per share, missing estimates, but revenue came in at $10.26 billion and rose 19.5% year over year. NRG also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.475 per share, implying an annualized yield of about 1.4%.

NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the sixteen analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eleven have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $197.80.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays dropped their price target on NRG Energy from $203.00 to $200.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Raymond James Financial set a $210.00 target price on NRG Energy in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Siebert Williams Shank started coverage on shares of NRG Energy in a research report on Monday, July 6th. They set a "buy" rating and a $184.00 price target on the stock. Williams Trading set a $184.00 price target on shares of NRG Energy in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of NRG Energy from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NRG Energy news, VP Virginia Kinney sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.52, for a total transaction of $2,550,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 45,111 shares in the company, valued at $5,752,554.72. This represents a 30.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.43% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NRG Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. boosted its position in NRG Energy by 93.5% during the 4th quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 571,628 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $91,026,000 after buying an additional 276,157 shares during the period. Hiddenite Capital Partners LP increased its position in shares of NRG Energy by 28.6% in the fourth quarter. Hiddenite Capital Partners LP now owns 90,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $14,332,000 after acquiring an additional 20,000 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 33.1% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 66,483 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $10,767,000 after acquiring an additional 16,545 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 83.8% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 568,464 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $90,522,000 after purchasing an additional 259,113 shares during the period. Finally, TimesSquare Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 523,205 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $83,315,000 after purchasing an additional 51,360 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.72% of the company's stock.

NRG Energy Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NRG opened at $140.60 on Monday. NRG Energy has a 1-year low of $120.11 and a 1-year high of $189.96. The company has a market capitalization of $29.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 165.41 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.68, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $136.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $150.42.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.78 by ($0.30). NRG Energy had a return on equity of 70.67% and a net margin of 0.74%.The company had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.68 EPS. NRG Energy's quarterly revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. NRG Energy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.900-9.900 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that NRG Energy will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NRG Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, May 1st were given a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 1st. NRG Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 223.53%.

About NRG Energy

NRG Energy NYSE: NRG is a U.S.-based integrated power company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company develops, owns and operates a diversified portfolio of power generation assets and participates in wholesale and retail energy markets. NRG supplies electricity to utilities, commercial and industrial customers, and retail consumers, while also providing energy-related products and services designed to manage consumption and support reliability.

NRG's generation mix includes conventional thermal plants as well as renewable and distributed energy resources.

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