UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Has $1.26 Million Stock Holdings in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp raised its position in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 94.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,550 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,041 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Entergy were worth $1,255,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Entergy by 101.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,133,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,952,773,000 after purchasing an additional 26,312,267 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 53.0% during 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. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Entergy by 87.3% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,215,746 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $243,867,000 after acquiring an additional 1,498,693 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Entergy by 139.5% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,423,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $183,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,411,473 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Entergy by 105.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,748,828 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $208,416,000 after purchasing an additional 1,408,476 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on ETR. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Entergy from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded Entergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $86.50 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Entergy from $79.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.75.

Entergy Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of ETR opened at $84.05 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.20 billion, a PE ratio of 34.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. Entergy Corporation has a 12-month low of $50.19 and a 12-month high of $88.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.03. Entergy had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 10.68%. The company 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 earned $0.26 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.