NRG Energy Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:NRG)

NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 23,687 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 453% compared to the average daily volume of 4,284 call options.

Institutional Trading of NRG Energy

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd grew its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 2.5% during the first quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 9,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $366,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 4.6% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 6,795 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 11,117 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund grew its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 3.9% during the third quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 8,427 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $323,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of NRG Energy by 1.9% during the second quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 17,617 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $659,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NRG has been the subject of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on NRG Energy from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 9th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on NRG Energy from $43.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on NRG Energy in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.00.

NRG Energy Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:NRG traded down $0.13 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $38.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 491,420 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,268,385. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.00, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.02. NRG Energy has a fifty-two week low of $30.25 and a fifty-two week high of $45.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $37.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.11. The company has a market capitalization of $8.83 billion, a PE ratio of -4.37, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.03.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.47 by ($1.22). NRG Energy had a positive return on equity of 25.82% and a negative net margin of 6.75%. The business had revenue of $6.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NRG Energy will post 4.55 EPS for the current year.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.3775 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 31st. This represents a $1.51 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. This is a boost from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. NRG Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently -17.08%.

About NRG Energy

NRG Energy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated power company in the United States. It operates through Texas, East, and West segments. The company is involved in producing and selling electricity and related products and services to approximately residential, commercial, industrial, and wholesale customers.