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

Evergy, Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given 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 a positive change from Evergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64.

Evergy has raised its dividend 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% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Price Performance

Evergy stock opened at $63.87 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.63. 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 one year low of $48.04 and a one year high of $64.14. The company has a market capitalization of $14.69 billion, a PE ratio of 17.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.62.

Evergy (NYSE:EVRG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.88 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Evergy will post 3.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Evergy news, EVP Kevin E. Bryant sold 48,141 shares of Evergy stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.93, for a total transaction of $3,029,513.13. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 1 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62.93. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Heather A. Humphrey sold 3,347 shares of Evergy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.80, for a total value of $196,803.60. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 35,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,076,463.20. This represents a 8.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,777,059 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.26% of the company’s stock.

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.