NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) Declares $0.41 Quarterly Dividend

NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.4075 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $1.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%.

NRG Energy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.0% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 5 years. NRG Energy has a payout ratio of 23.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect NRG Energy to earn $6.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.63 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.8%.

NRG Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NRG opened at $73.42 on Thursday. NRG Energy has a twelve month low of $30.52 and a twelve month high of $76.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.49. The company has a market capitalization of $15.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.62 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $52.67.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.20. NRG Energy had a positive return on equity of 44.03% and a negative net margin of 0.70%. The business had revenue of $6.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.51 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NRG Energy will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NRG Energy news, VP Rasesh M. Patel sold 49,092 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.59, for a total transaction of $3,072,668.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 356,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,342,251.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.86% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Permian Investment Partners LP boosted its position in NRG Energy by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Permian Investment Partners LP now owns 5,326,801 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $204,336,000 after acquiring an additional 73,000 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 1.3% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,142,403 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $177,483,000 after buying an additional 64,942 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 145.4% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,746,180 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $182,064,000 after buying an additional 2,812,434 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 25.7% in the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 4,356,780 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $162,899,000 after buying an additional 891,443 shares during the period. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 2,317.0% in the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 1,759,559 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $90,969,000 after buying an additional 1,686,761 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on NRG. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com upgraded NRG Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded NRG Energy from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Friday, December 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $59.50.

NRG Energy Company 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.