Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 120 Shares of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,916 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 120 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in NRG Energy were worth $1,436,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NRG. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NRG Energy by 6.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,399,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $494,225,000 after acquiring an additional 313,478 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A. boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 2,820,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $256,948,000 after purchasing an additional 24,834 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in NRG Energy by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,663,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $242,639,000 after buying an additional 182,481 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in NRG Energy by 1,010.1% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,557,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $140,504,000 after buying an additional 1,417,057 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of NRG Energy by 52.2% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,330,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $121,227,000 after acquiring an additional 456,573 shares during the period. 97.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NRG. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NRG Energy from $86.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of NRG Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $74.00 to $126.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Guggenheim boosted their price target on NRG Energy from $134.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NRG Energy from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $123.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NRG Energy news, VP Robert J. Gaudette sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.41, for a total value of $5,484,600.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 64,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,891,191.68. This trade represents a 48.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Bruce Chung sold 20,000 shares of NRG Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.63, for a total value of $1,952,600.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,780,794.02. This trade represents a 22.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.86% of the company’s stock.

NRG Energy Trading Down 5.3 %

NRG stock opened at $100.13 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.57, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $102.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.92. NRG Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.96 and a fifty-two week high of $117.26.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.76%. This is a boost from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. NRG Energy’s payout ratio is currently 35.92%.

NRG Energy Profile

NRG Energy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy and home services company in the United States and Canada. It operates through Texas; East; West/Services/Other; Vivint Smart Home; and Corporate Activities segments. The company produces and sells electricity generated using coal, oil, solar, and battery storage; natural gas; and a cloud-based home platform, including hardware, software, sales, installation, customer service, technical support, and professional monitoring solutions.