NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) Receives $199.43 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $199.4286.

NRG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial set a $210.00 target price on NRG Energy in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of NRG Energy from $226.00 to $211.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 price target on shares of NRG Energy in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Barclays lifted their price objective on NRG Energy from $200.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $214.00 price target on shares of NRG Energy in a report on Thursday.

NRG Energy Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:NRG opened at $118.30 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $134.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $147.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.30 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.17. NRG Energy has a 1-year low of $112.50 and a 1-year high of $189.96.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by ($0.20). NRG Energy had a net margin of 2.56% and a return on equity of 52.95%. The firm had revenue of $7.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.31 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.73 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. NRG Energy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.900-9.900 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that NRG Energy will post 8.58 earnings per share for the current year.

NRG Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 3rd will be given a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NRG Energy news, VP Virginia Kinney sold 20,000 shares of NRG Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.52, for a total transaction of $2,550,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 45,111 shares in the company, valued at $5,752,554.72. The trade was a 30.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.43% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NRG. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 93.5% during the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 571,628 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $91,026,000 after purchasing an additional 276,157 shares during the last quarter. Hiddenite Capital Partners LP raised its position in NRG Energy by 28.6% in the 4th quarter. Hiddenite Capital Partners LP now owns 90,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,332,000 after purchasing an additional 20,000 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in NRG Energy by 83.8% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 568,464 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $90,522,000 after buying an additional 259,113 shares in the last quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC boosted its position in NRG Energy by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 523,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,315,000 after buying an additional 51,360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in NRG Energy by 1,799.5% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 134,520 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $21,421,000 after buying an additional 127,438 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

About NRG Energy

NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) is a U.S.-based integrated power company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company develops, owns and operates a diversified portfolio of power generation assets and participates in wholesale and retail energy markets. NRG supplies electricity to utilities, commercial and industrial customers, and retail consumers, while also providing energy-related products and services designed to manage consumption and support reliability.

NRG’s generation mix includes conventional thermal plants as well as renewable and distributed energy resources.