First Manhattan CO. LLC. Has $5.92 Million Stock Holdings in Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. lowered its stake in shares of Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 96,138 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,313 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC.’s holdings in Evergy were worth $5,917,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in Evergy in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. National Pension Service bought a new stake in Evergy in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust acquired a new position in Evergy during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Colonial Trust Co SC bought a new position in Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Sandy Spring Bank raised its stake in shares of Evergy by 5,983.3% in the 4th quarter. Sandy Spring Bank now owns 730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 718 shares in the last quarter. 87.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Evergy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EVRG opened at $66.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.00, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.53. Evergy, Inc. has a one year low of $52.10 and a one year high of $70.36. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.21 billion. Evergy had a return on equity of 8.77% and a net margin of 14.77%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Evergy, Inc. will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be paid a $0.6675 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $2.67 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 70.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim raised shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on Evergy from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Evergy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.92.

About Evergy

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.