Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) Increases Dividend to $0.67 Per Share

Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.6675 per share on Friday, December 20th. This represents a $2.67 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from Evergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64.

Evergy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Evergy has a payout ratio of 66.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Evergy to earn $4.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.67 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 66.1%.

Evergy Stock Performance

Shares of EVRG stock opened at $63.87 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.32. Evergy has a fifty-two week low of $48.04 and a fifty-two week high of $64.14. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $61.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.63. The firm has a market cap of $14.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.09, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.62.

Evergy (NYSE:EVRG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.07. Evergy had a return on equity of 8.77% and a net margin of 14.77%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.88 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Evergy will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Evergy news, SVP Heather A. Humphrey sold 3,347 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.80, for a total value of $196,803.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 35,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,076,463.20. This trade represents a 8.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kevin E. Bryant sold 48,141 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.93, for a total value of $3,029,513.13. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62.93. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 60,724 shares of company stock worth $3,777,059. 3.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EVRG has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Evergy in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho initiated coverage on Evergy in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $67.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Evergy from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Evergy from $67.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, UBS Group raised Evergy to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.88.

About Evergy

Evergy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the United States. The company generates electricity through coal, landfill gas, uranium, and natural gas and oil sources, as well as solar, wind, other renewable sources. It serves residences, commercial firms, industrials, municipalities, and other electric utilities.