Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Evergy Inc. $EVRG

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) by 4.9% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 528,399 shares of the company’s stock after selling 27,353 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Evergy were worth $43,286,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Evergy during the fourth quarter valued at $1,073,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its holdings in Evergy by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 316,511 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,944,000 after buying an additional 14,907 shares in the last quarter. Vestcor Inc boosted its position in Evergy by 49.6% in the 4th quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 174,330 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,637,000 after buying an additional 57,795 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Evergy by 29.3% in the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 560,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,613,000 after buying an additional 126,893 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in Evergy by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 768,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,675,000 after buying an additional 67,850 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Evergy from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Evergy from $89.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Evergy from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays lifted their target price on Evergy from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, BTIG Research started coverage on Evergy in a report on Thursday, April 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $99.00 target price for the company. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.10.

Evergy Price Performance

Shares of Evergy stock opened at $85.71 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $80.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Evergy Inc. has a 52-week low of $67.30 and a 52-week high of $88.62. The company has a market cap of $19.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.73, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.54.

Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.27 billion. Evergy had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 9.09%. Evergy’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.54 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Evergy Inc. will post 4.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Evergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 22nd were given a $0.695 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 22nd. This represents a $2.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Evergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.74%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Evergy news, EVP Charles A. Caisley sold 10,787 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.46, for a total value of $900,283.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 37,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,153,869.94. This trade represents a 22.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Sandra Aj Lawrence sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director directly owned 680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,358.80. This represents a 46.88% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 12,748 shares of company stock valued at $1,061,870 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

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.