Evergy Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.70 (NASDAQ:EVRG)

Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.695 per share on Friday, March 20th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th.

Evergy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Evergy has a dividend payout ratio of 65.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Evergy to earn $4.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.78 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 69.0%.

Evergy Trading Down 1.1%

NASDAQ:EVRG traded down $0.87 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $79.53. 4,791,282 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,219,702. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.79, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.66. Evergy has a fifty-two week low of $61.94 and a fifty-two week high of $83.19. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $74.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, January 31st. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter. Evergy had a net margin of 14.45% and a return on equity of 8.66%. As a group, research analysts expect that Evergy will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Evergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. UBS Group lowered Evergy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $86.00 to $88.00 in a report on Friday, February 13th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Evergy from $79.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Evergy from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Evergy from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Evergy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.25.

Evergy Company Profile

Evergy, Inc is a regulated electric utility that generates, transmits and distributes electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers primarily across Kansas and western Missouri. The company provides core utility services including retail electric delivery, grid operations, customer service and outage restoration, operating under state regulatory frameworks. Evergy serves a mix of urban and rural communities, including portions of the Kansas City metropolitan area and other population centers in its service territory.

The company’s business activities span power generation, system planning, transmission and distribution infrastructure, and customer-facing programs such as energy efficiency and demand-side management.