TIAA Trust National Association Boosts Stock Position in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

TIAA Trust National Association lifted its holdings in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 179,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,872 shares during the period. TIAA Trust National Association’s holdings in Entergy were worth $13,598,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 raised 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 worth $1,501,509,000 after purchasing an additional 128,667 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Entergy by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,613,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $870,422,000 after buying an additional 315,750 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,981,611 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Entergy by 0.8% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ETR has been the topic of several research reports. Scotiabank lowered their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Entergy from $79.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Entergy from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Entergy from $85.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Entergy from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.75.

Entergy Price Performance

Shares of ETR opened at $82.92 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $75.47. The stock has a market cap of $35.72 billion, a PE ratio of 34.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. Entergy Corporation has a 1-year low of $50.19 and a 1-year high of $88.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $2.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 EPS for the current year.

Entergy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors 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 2.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.