Hopwood Financial Services Inc. Acquires New Shares in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Hopwood Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $45,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 1.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,408,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,501,509,000 after buying an additional 128,667 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 5.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,613,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $870,422,000 after buying an additional 315,750 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 53.0% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,718,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $754,318,000 after buying an additional 1,981,611 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,965,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $651,206,000 after buying an additional 37,279 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 60.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,589,727 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $472,444,000 after buying an additional 1,354,355 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

Entergy Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ETR opened at $82.70 on Thursday. 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $81.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.87.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last issued its quarterly 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 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 earnings per share. 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Entergy’s payout ratio is 98.77%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. KeyCorp cut Entergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Entergy from $165.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Entergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Entergy from $79.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Entergy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.11.

Insider Buying and Selling at Entergy

In other Entergy news, insider Deanna D. Rodriguez sold 6,088 shares of Entergy stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.94, for a total transaction of $450,146.72. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,952 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $292,210.88. The trade was a 60.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

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.