NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) Trading 3.7% Higher

NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG – Get Rating) shot up 3.7% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $32.19 and last traded at $32.18. 1,804,155 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 56% from the average session volume of 4,061,426 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.04.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NRG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com assumed coverage on NRG Energy in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a “sell” rating for the company. TheStreet lowered shares of NRG Energy from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NRG Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of NRG Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Monday, March 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.25.

NRG Energy Stock Up 5.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.66, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $35.17. The company has a market capitalization of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.03.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $7.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.67 billion. NRG Energy had a negative net margin of 5.90% and a positive return on equity of 17.12%. Sell-side analysts predict that NRG Energy, Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NRG Energy Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.377 per share. This represents a $1.51 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 28th. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -19.04%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in NRG Energy by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 39,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,525,000 after buying an additional 2,422 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 12.7% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $589,000 after acquiring an additional 1,727 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 6.2% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 427,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,396,000 after acquiring an additional 24,792 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 6.6% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 32,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,257,000 after acquiring an additional 2,028 shares during the period. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can raised its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 6.8% during the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 229,581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,243,000 after acquiring an additional 14,574 shares during the period. 99.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About NRG Energy

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NRG Energy, Inc engages in the production, sale, and distribution of energy and energy services. It operates through the following segments: Generation, Retail, and Corporate. The Generation segment includes all power plant activities, domestic and international, as well as renewables. The Retail segment includes mass customers and business solutions, and other distributed and reliability products.