Fifth Third Bancorp Buys 65,660 Shares of Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 152.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 108,759 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 65,660 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Evergy were worth $8,910,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in shares of Evergy during the 4th quarter valued at $257,000. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new position in Evergy during the first quarter valued at $223,000. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in Evergy by 19.5% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 4,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 758 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP grew its holdings in Evergy by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 19,429 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,340,000 after purchasing an additional 5,618 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth increased its position in Evergy by 7.3% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 13,791 shares of the company’s stock worth $951,000 after buying an additional 939 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Evergy Trading Down 1.2%

EVRG opened at $85.42 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $83.97 and a 200 day moving average of $81.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Evergy Inc. has a 12 month low of $67.48 and a 12 month high of $88.62. The firm has a market cap of $19.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.54.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.27 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 9.09%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 EPS for the current year.

Evergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 22nd were given a dividend of $0.695 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 22nd. This represents a $2.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. Evergy’s payout ratio is 73.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Evergy

In other news, Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total value of $48,846.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,358.80. The trade was a 46.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total transaction of $900,283.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 37,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,153,869.94. The trade was a 22.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 12,748 shares of company stock valued at $1,061,870 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EVRG has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Evergy from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $87.00 price objective on shares of Evergy in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. BTIG Research started coverage on shares of Evergy in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $99.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Evergy from $89.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.10.

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.