Destination Wealth Management Grows Holdings in Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES)

Destination Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) by 5.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the quarter. Destination Wealth Management’s holdings in Eversource Energy were worth $287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in Eversource Energy by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,539,895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,737,990,000 after buying an additional 430,587 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in Eversource Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at $808,783,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Eversource Energy by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,933,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $570,500,000 after buying an additional 226,972 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Eversource Energy by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,040,171 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $613,233,000 after buying an additional 268,588 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in Eversource Energy by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,019,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $477,647,000 after buying an additional 185,381 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on ES shares. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Eversource Energy from $56.00 to $55.00 and set a “sector underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Eversource Energy in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Eversource Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Eversource Energy from $72.00 to $69.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Eversource Energy from $79.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eversource Energy

In other news, VP Jay S. Buth sold 980 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.99, for a total transaction of $61,730.20. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 24,374 shares in the company, valued at $1,535,318.26. This represents a 3.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Frederica M. Williams sold 3,092 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.26, for a total transaction of $192,507.92. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 22,671 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,411,496.46. The trade was a 12.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Eversource Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ES opened at $60.97 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $22.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.39, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.60. Eversource Energy has a 52 week low of $54.75 and a 52 week high of $69.01. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $59.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.29. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71.

Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.01. Eversource Energy had a net margin of 6.82% and a return on equity of 10.99%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Eversource Energy will post 4.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eversource Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be issued a $0.7525 dividend. This represents a $3.01 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.94%. This is a positive change from Eversource Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 4th. Eversource Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 130.30%.

About Eversource Energy

Eversource Energy, a public utility holding company, engages in the energy delivery business. The company operates through Electric Distribution, Electric Transmission, Natural Gas Distribution, and Water Distribution segments. It is involved in the transmission and distribution of electricity; solar power facilities; and distribution of natural gas.