Scotiabank Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Entergy (NYSE:ETR) Stock

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Scotiabank from $72.00 to $82.50 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector perform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 11.11% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on ETR. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Entergy from $68.50 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Entergy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America downgraded Entergy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Monday, November 4th. KeyCorp cut Entergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Entergy from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.40.

Entergy Trading Down 49.9 %

Shares of ETR stock opened at $74.25 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Entergy has a 1-year low of $48.08 and a 1-year high of $79.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.92 billion, a PE ratio of 9.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.71. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $72.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.86.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.04. Entergy had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 14.83%. The business had revenue of $3.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.64 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Entergy will post 7.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Peter S. Norgeot, Jr. sold 15,844 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $1,029,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,986 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,549,090. This represents a 18.46 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Haley Fisackerly sold 8,268 shares of Entergy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.52, for a total transaction of $616,090.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $300,444.48. The trade was a 67.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 24,512 shares of company stock worth $1,675,350. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in Entergy by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 986,546 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $129,840,000 after purchasing an additional 174,093 shares during the period. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd increased its position in Entergy by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd now owns 97,218 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,795,000 after purchasing an additional 9,986 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Entergy by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 280,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $36,885,000 after acquiring an additional 10,697 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its position in Entergy by 19.3% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 28,498 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,049,000 after buying an additional 4,616 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in Entergy by 40.7% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 18,597 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,448,000 after purchasing an additional 5,381 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

About Entergy

Entergy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and retail distribution of electricity in the United States. It generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electric power in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, including the City of New Orleans; and distributes natural gas.