Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Buys 10,579 Shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its stake in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) by 86.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 22,765 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,579 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Entergy were worth $1,726,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ETR. Pathstone Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 16,862 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,219,000 after purchasing an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 5,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $695,000 after purchasing an additional 485 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in shares of Entergy during the 3rd quarter worth $564,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 89,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,025 shares during the period. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new stake in shares of Entergy during the 3rd quarter worth $3,001,000. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on ETR. Scotiabank lowered their target price 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. KeyCorp lowered Entergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Entergy from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.75.

Entergy Stock Down 1.1 %

ETR stock opened at $83.74 on Friday. 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 $36.04 billion, a PE ratio of 34.39, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. Entergy Corporation has a twelve month low of $50.19 and a twelve month high of $88.38. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.96.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.24 billion. Entergy had a return on equity of 10.68% and a net margin of 8.90%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.87%. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.