Allianz SE Makes New $152,000 Investment in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Allianz SE bought a new stake in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 2,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $152,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Entergy by 101.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,133,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,952,773,000 after buying an additional 26,312,267 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Entergy by 1.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,408,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,501,509,000 after acquiring an additional 128,667 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Entergy by 105.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,363,219 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $558,279,000 after acquiring an additional 3,773,492 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Entergy by 53.0% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,718,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $754,318,000 after acquiring an additional 1,981,611 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Entergy by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,965,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $651,206,000 after purchasing an additional 37,279 shares during the last quarter. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on ETR. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Entergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 29th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Entergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $86.50 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group raised their price target on Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Entergy from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Entergy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.75.

Entergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ETR opened at $85.63 on Tuesday. Entergy Corporation has a twelve month low of $50.19 and a twelve month high of $88.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $83.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $76.13. The company has a market capitalization of $36.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.17, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.24 billion. Entergy had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 10.68%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Entergy’s payout ratio is 98.77%.

Entergy Profile

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.