NRG Energy, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.41 (NYSE:NRG)

NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.4075 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $1.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th.

NRG Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 8.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 5 years. NRG Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 23.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect NRG Energy to earn $6.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.63 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.0%.

NRG Energy Price Performance

Shares of NRG opened at $72.81 on Friday. NRG Energy has a 1-year low of $30.52 and a 1-year high of $76.54. The stock has a market cap of $15.63 billion, a PE ratio of -68.05 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.49, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.20. NRG Energy had a negative net margin of 0.70% and a positive return on equity of 44.03%. The business had revenue of $6.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.51 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that NRG Energy will post 5.36 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on NRG shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $51.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of NRG Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Rasesh M. Patel sold 49,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.59, for a total value of $3,072,668.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 356,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,342,251.58. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.86% of the company’s stock.

About NRG Energy

NRG Energy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy and home services company in the United States and Canada. It operates through Texas; East; West/Services/Other; Vivint Smart Home; and Corporate Activities segments. The company produces and sells electricity generated using coal, oil, solar, and battery storage; natural gas; and a cloud-based home platform, including hardware, software, sales, installation, customer service, technical support, and professional monitoring solutions.