Entergy Corporation $ETR Stock Bought by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its holdings in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 2.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,592,948 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 55,021 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Entergy were worth $257,376,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Entergy during the second quarter worth approximately $4,861,376,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Entergy in the second quarter valued at $1,991,669,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new position in shares of Entergy in the second quarter valued at $633,338,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Entergy by 4.3% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,941,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $452,681,000 after buying an additional 161,411 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Entergy during the 2nd quarter valued at $430,404,000. 88.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Entergy

In related news, insider Laura Landreaux sold 5,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.20, for a total transaction of $594,720.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 22,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,398,951.80. The trade was a 19.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ETR shares. Bank of America raised their price objective on Entergy from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Entergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Evercore increased their price target on Entergy from $121.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Entergy from $123.00 to $118.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Entergy from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.57.

Entergy Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:ETR opened at $110.42 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $104.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $107.68. Entergy Corporation has a 52 week low of $90.87 and a 52 week high of $118.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.18. The company has a market cap of $52.76 billion, a PE ratio of 25.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.44.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.25. Entergy had a net margin of 14.63% and a return on equity of 11.44%. The firm had revenue of $4.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Entergy Corporation will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Entergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. This is a positive change from Entergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.53%.

Entergy Company Profile

Entergy Corporation is an investor-owned energy company headquartered in New Orleans. Its primary business is providing regulated electric utility service to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Through its utility subsidiaries, Entergy serves communities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Its operations include generating, transmitting and distributing electricity, with power produced from a mix of sources that includes nuclear energy.

The company traces its corporate history to Middle South Utilities, which adopted the Entergy name in 1989.