Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Cuts Holdings in Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL decreased its position in Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) by 2.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 330,805 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,979 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL owned about 0.14% of Evergy worth $17,658,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. purchased a new position in Evergy in the fourth quarter valued at $1,121,000. OLD Republic International Corp increased its holdings in Evergy by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. OLD Republic International Corp now owns 830,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,339,000 after buying an additional 200,000 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its holdings in Evergy by 11.2% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 316,455 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,892,000 after buying an additional 31,985 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. purchased a new position in Evergy in the fourth quarter valued at $2,057,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Evergy by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,757,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,605,537,000 after buying an additional 1,399,199 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Evergy Price Performance

EVRG traded up $0.42 on Friday, reaching $56.75. 1,610,306 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,368,896. The stock has a market cap of $13.05 billion, a PE ratio of 18.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.60. Evergy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $46.92 and a twelve month high of $61.15. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $53.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.57 and a quick ratio of 0.32.

Evergy (NYSE:EVRG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. Evergy had a return on equity of 8.32% and a net margin of 12.84%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Evergy, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.6425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.53%. Evergy’s payout ratio is presently 83.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on EVRG shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Evergy from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of Evergy in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $51.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Evergy from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.83.

Evergy Company Profile

Evergy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the United States. The company generates electricity through coal, landfill gas, uranium, and natural gas and oil sources, as well as solar, wind, other renewable sources. It serves residences, commercial firms, industrials, municipalities, and other electric utilities.