NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) Shares Sold by Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. trimmed its holdings in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) by 10.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,940 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 480 shares during the period. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.’s holdings in NRG Energy were worth $355,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NRG. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 6.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,399,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $494,225,000 after buying an additional 313,478 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A. boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 0.9% during the third quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 2,820,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $256,948,000 after buying an additional 24,834 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 7.4% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,663,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $242,639,000 after buying an additional 182,481 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 1,010.1% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,557,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $140,504,000 after buying an additional 1,417,057 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its stake in NRG Energy by 52.2% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,330,706 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $121,227,000 after buying an additional 456,573 shares during the period. 97.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $86.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Evercore ISI raised shares of NRG Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $74.00 to $126.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of NRG Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $93.00 to $113.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $134.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.14.

NRG Energy Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:NRG opened at $105.73 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $102.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.72. The stock has a market cap of $20.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.15. NRG Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $54.12 and a fifty-two week high of $117.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.57.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. This is a boost from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.92%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Bruce Chung sold 20,000 shares of NRG Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.63, for a total transaction of $1,952,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,780,794.02. The trade was a 22.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert J. Gaudette sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.41, for a total transaction of $5,484,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 64,448 shares in the company, valued at $5,891,191.68. This represents a 48.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.86% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NRG Energy Company Profile

NRG Energy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy and home services company in the United States and Canada. It operates through Texas; East; West/Services/Other; Vivint Smart Home; and Corporate Activities segments. The company produces and sells electricity generated using coal, oil, solar, and battery storage; natural gas; and a cloud-based home platform, including hardware, software, sales, installation, customer service, technical support, and professional monitoring solutions.