Entergy Co. (NYSE:ETR) Position Reduced by Epoch Investment Partners Inc.

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. reduced its position in shares of Entergy Co. (NYSE:ETR) by 2.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 513,311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 14,682 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned about 0.24% of Entergy worth $54,924,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ETR. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Entergy by 27.9% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 548,393 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,678,000 after buying an additional 119,636 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Entergy by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 43,215 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,624,000 after acquiring an additional 3,037 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Entergy by 49.4% during the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 11,791 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,262,000 after purchasing an additional 3,901 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its stake in shares of Entergy by 12.4% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 6,926,492 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $741,135,000 after purchasing an additional 763,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Entergy by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 812,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $86,933,000 after purchasing an additional 102,644 shares during the last quarter. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Entergy Price Performance

NYSE ETR opened at $129.25 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $118.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $110.93. Entergy Co. has a 52-week low of $87.10 and a 52-week high of $129.70.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.16. Entergy had a net margin of 14.75% and a return on equity of 10.10%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.98 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Entergy Co. will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were paid a $1.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.50%. Entergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on ETR. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Entergy from $123.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Entergy from $143.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Argus upgraded Entergy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Entergy from $100.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on Entergy from $115.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $127.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Peter S. Norgeot, Jr. sold 11,472 shares of Entergy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.16, for a total transaction of $1,321,115.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 37,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,363,182.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, COO Peter S. Norgeot, Jr. sold 11,472 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.16, for a total transaction of $1,321,115.52. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 37,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,363,182.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Andrew S. Marsh sold 600 shares of Entergy stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.03, for a total transaction of $72,018.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 150,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,092,241.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 42,888 shares of company stock valued at $5,110,766 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Entergy Company 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.