Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) Stock

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) had its price objective raised by analysts at Barclays from $62.00 to $72.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 9.42% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on EVRG. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $59.00 to $68.50 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Guggenheim raised Evergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.79.

Evergy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EVRG opened at $65.80 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $64.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.51. Evergy has a 52 week low of $49.55 and a 52 week high of $69.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.13 billion, a PE ratio of 17.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.62.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.11). Evergy had a net margin of 14.77% and a return on equity of 8.77%. The company had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. Analysts predict that Evergy will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Evergy

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,665,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,887,485,000 after purchasing an additional 221,086 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,660,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $348,430,000 after purchasing an additional 128,211 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Evergy by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,637,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,063,000 after purchasing an additional 133,641 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,555,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,818,000 after purchasing an additional 130,804 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,434,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,376,000 after purchasing an additional 73,066 shares during the last quarter. 87.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.