Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Purchases 1,442 Shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 398.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,804 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,442 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Entergy were worth $137,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 1.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,408,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,501,509,000 after purchasing an additional 128,667 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Entergy by 5.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,613,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $870,422,000 after purchasing an additional 315,750 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,981,611 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 37,279 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,354,355 shares during the period. 88.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on ETR. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Entergy from $68.50 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Entergy from $165.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Entergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Entergy from $69.00 to $82.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of Entergy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $86.50 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Entergy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.14.

Entergy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ETR opened at $87.29 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $80.59 and a 200 day moving average of $72.53. The stock has a market cap of $37.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.72. Entergy Corporation has a 12 month low of $49.80 and a 12 month high of $88.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.24 billion. Entergy had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 10.68%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.75%. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.77%.

Insider Activity at Entergy

In related news, insider Deanna D. Rodriguez sold 6,088 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.94, for a total transaction of $450,146.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,952 shares in the company, valued at $292,210.88. This represents a 60.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.