Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) Short Interest Up 37.7% in February

Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 9,610,000 shares, a growth of 37.7% from the February 13th total of 6,980,000 shares. Currently, 2.2% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 3,670,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ETR shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Entergy from $79.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Entergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $86.50 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp downgraded Entergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank cut their price target on Entergy from $165.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Six 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Entergy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.11.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ acquired a new stake in shares of Entergy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $10,389,000. Northstar Financial Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Entergy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $262,000. Anchor Pointe Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Entergy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $241,000. Aegis Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Entergy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $394,000. Finally, Smith Shellnut Wilson LLC ADV grew its holdings in shares of Entergy by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Smith Shellnut Wilson LLC ADV now owns 3,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. 88.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Entergy Stock Performance

NYSE ETR traded up $2.16 during trading on Friday, hitting $85.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,297,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,256,440. 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 50 day moving average price of $82.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $74.21. The firm has a market cap of $36.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. Entergy has a 52 week low of $50.19 and a 52 week high of $88.38.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion. Entergy had a return on equity of 10.68% and a net margin of 8.90%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Entergy will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.77%.

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.