Evergy Inc. (NYSE: EVRG): Analyst View Points To Future Growth

Capital Research & Management Co has recently announced that it has increased stake in Evergy Inc. (NYSE:EVRG) by 8.54%. After grabbing 20.55 million shares, the institutional investor is now in possession of 1.62 million shares of the Utilities Company. The new investment brought the stake of investor firm to 8.95% having worth around $1.26 billion. Moreover, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. increased its share by 0.19 million to have a control over 14.65 million shares. And BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings to 87447.0 shares by acquiring 12.73 million shares or 5.55% of the stake.

Evergy Inc. (EVRG) concluded trading on 11/30/22 at a closing price of $59.21, with 8.25 million shares of worth about $488.29 million changed hands on the day. Half year performance of the stock remained negative as price took a plunge of -15.43% during that period and on Wednesday the price saw a gain of about 1.96%. Currently the company’s common shares owned by public are about 229.90M shares, out of which, 229.03M shares are available for trading.

A deeper look into what the analysts at Wall Street are thinking about the price target of this stock provides us with the following: 9 analysts are covering the EVRG stock and their offered price forecasts bring an average price target of $64.00. Over the next 12 months, analysts forecasted that the stock’s price could jump as high as $72.00 and could fall to a lowest price of $54.00. The stock’s current price level is 8.74% above of average price target set by the analysts, while a rise to estimated low would result in loss of -9.65% for the stock. However, touching the estimated high of $72.00 would mean a gain of 17.76% for the stock.

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Washington Mutual Investors Fund, and Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund are the top 3 mutual funds which are holding stakes in Evergy Inc. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is currently holding 6.88 million shares of worth totaling $420.36 million. The company recently came buying 26491.0 shares which brought its stake up to 3.00% of the company’s outstanding shares. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund, after buying 5.36 million shares, have now control over 2.34% of the stake in the company. It holds 64452.0 shares of worth $327.68 million.

Evergy Inc. (NYSE: EVRG) started trading at $57.99, below -$0.08 from concluding price of the previous day. However, the stock later moved at a day high price of 59.26, or with a gain of 1.96%. Stock saw a price change of 0.02% in past 5 days and over the past one month there was a price change of -3.14%. Year-to-date (YTD), EVRG shares are showing a performance of -13.70% which decreased to -6.46% when we look at its performance for past 12 months. Over the period of past 52 weeks, stock dropped to lowest price of $54.12 but also hit the highest price of $73.12 during that period. The average intraday trading volume for Evergy Inc. shares is 1.67 million. The stock is currently trading -0.92% below its 20-day simple moving average (SMA20), while that difference is down -1.30% for SMA50 and it goes to -9.20% lower than SMA200.

Capital Research & Management Co acquired 20.55 million shares of Evergy Inc. having value of about $1.26 billion. Data submitted at the U.S SEC by Capital Research & Management Co revealed that the firm now holds 1.62 million shares in the company valued at close to $95719182.05, or have control over 8.54% stake in the company. Evergy Inc. (NYSE: EVRG) currently have 229.90M outstanding shares and institutions hold larger chunk of about 86.40% of that. Holding of mutual funds in the company is about 27.65% while other institutional holders and individual stake holders have control over 56.02% and 1.52% of the stake respectively.

The stock has a current market capitalization of $13.79B and its 3Y-monthly beta is at 0.52. PE ratio of stock for trailing 12 months is 17.09, while it has posted earnings per share of $3.46 in the same period. Its PEG reads 4.75 and has Quick Ratio of 0.40 while making debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Volatility of a stock is a metric used to know how much the price of that stock is under influence and for EVRG, volatility over the week remained 2.03% while standing at 2.65% over the month.

Analysts are in expectations that Evergy Inc. (EVRG) stock would likely to be making an EPS of $1.88 in the current quarter, while forecast for next quarter EPS is $0.29 and it is $3.77 for next year. For the current quarter EPS, analysts have given the company a lowest target $1.8 which is $1.96 at the higher side of the target for the same. When we compare those targets with actual EPS, we find that company posted an EPS of $1.98 in the same quarter a year ago. Stock’s fiscal year EPS is expected to rise by 41.00% while it is estimated to increase by 4.24% in next year. EPS is likely to shrink at an annualized rate of 3.60% for next 5-years, compared to annual growth of 9.60% made by the stock over the past 5-years.

Analysts at 9 brokerage firms have issued recommendations for the Evergy Inc. (EVRG)’s stock and average of those rates the stock at a “Moderate Buy” and assign it a score of 2.40. Out of those 9 Wall Street analysts, 2 recommended a “Buy” rating, while 5 were in favor recommending the stock as a “Hold” and 1 analyst recommended the stock as “Sell”.

Digging deeper we find that several firms have released their research notes about the support levels of the stock. Most recent of them is a note released by Credit Suisse on November 29, 2022 offering an Underperform rating for the stock and assigned a target price range of between $61 and $57 to it. Coverage by BofA Securities stated Evergy Inc. (EVRG) stock as an Underperform in their note to investors on November 23, 2022, suggesting a price target of $54 for the stock. On November 21, 2022, Seaport Research Partners Downgrade their recommendations, while on June 30, 2022, UBS Downgrade their ratings for the stock with a price target of $70. Stock get an Outperform rating from Credit Suisse on April 26, 2022.