Avangrid (NYSE:AGR) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

Posted by Kim Johansen on Mar 19th, 2023

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Avangrid (NYSE:AGR – Get Rating) in a report issued on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp raised their price target on Avangrid from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a report on Tuesday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Avangrid from $48.00 to $43.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $45.00.

Avangrid Stock Performance

Shares of AGR opened at $39.55 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.73. Avangrid has a 52-week low of $37.64 and a 52-week high of $51.71.

Avangrid (NYSE:AGR – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 22nd. The utilities provider reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39. Avangrid had a return on equity of 4.45% and a net margin of 11.12%. The business had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Avangrid will post 2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Avangrid Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 1st will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 28th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.45%. Avangrid’s payout ratio is 77.19%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Avangrid

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its position in Avangrid by 426.5% during the 4th quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 48,044 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,065,000 after acquiring an additional 38,919 shares during the last quarter. Natixis lifted its holdings in Avangrid by 92.9% in the 4th quarter. Natixis now owns 156,502 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,726,000 after buying an additional 75,380 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Avangrid by 54.7% in the 4th quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 42,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,813,000 after buying an additional 14,909 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in Avangrid by 27.5% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,779 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $119,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Finally, Personal Capital Advisors Corp lifted its holdings in Avangrid by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Personal Capital Advisors Corp now owns 289,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,450,000 after buying an additional 5,713 shares during the period. 11.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Avangrid

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Avangrid, Inc engages in the energy transmission and gas distribution. It operates through the following segments: Networks, Renewables, and Other. The Networks segment includes energy transmission and distribution, electric transmission, and gas distribution activities. The Renewables segment relates to renewable energy, mainly wind energy generation and trading related to such activities.