Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) Stake Lifted by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL boosted its position in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 137.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,297 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,315 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Entergy were worth $1,615,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Entergy by 101.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,133,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,952,773,000 after acquiring an additional 26,312,267 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Entergy by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,408,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,501,509,000 after purchasing an additional 128,667 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Entergy by 105.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,363,219 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $558,279,000 after purchasing an additional 3,773,492 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised 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 purchasing an additional 1,981,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Entergy by 0.8% during the third 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 owned by institutional investors.

Entergy Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:ETR opened at $85.63 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72. Entergy Corporation has a 52 week low of $50.19 and a 52 week high of $88.38. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $83.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.28. The company has a market capitalization of $36.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.17, a P/E/G 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.03. Entergy had a return on equity of 10.68% and a net margin of 8.90%. The firm had revenue of $2.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Entergy’s payout ratio is presently 98.77%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on ETR shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. StockNews.com raised Entergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, December 29th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Entergy from $79.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Entergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.75.

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.