Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Purchases 174,093 Shares of Entergy Co. (NYSE:ETR)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in Entergy Co. (NYSE:ETR) by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 986,546 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 174,093 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Entergy were worth $129,840,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ETR. Quent Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Entergy by 21.7% during the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 550 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in Entergy by 37.7% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 4,183 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $442,000 after purchasing an additional 1,146 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Entergy during the first quarter valued at about $1,549,000. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in Entergy by 166.5% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 43,160 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,561,000 after buying an additional 26,963 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 55.4% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 14,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,571,000 after buying an additional 5,303 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Entergy

In related news, insider Haley Fisackerly sold 4,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.03, for a total transaction of $616,090.02. Following the sale, the insider now owns 2,016 shares in the company, valued at approximately $300,444.48. This represents a 67.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Peter S. Norgeot, Jr. sold 3,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.56, for a total value of $398,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 34,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,288,742.08. This represents a 8.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,472 shares of company stock valued at $5,076,328 over the last 90 days. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on ETR. Bank of America lowered shares of Entergy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $138.00 to $154.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Entergy from $143.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Entergy from $137.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Entergy from $137.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Entergy from $146.00 to $166.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $150.96.

Entergy Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Entergy stock opened at $149.12 on Friday. Entergy Co. has a twelve month low of $96.15 and a twelve month high of $156.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $135.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.10. The firm has a market cap of $31.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.16, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.71.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $2.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.08. Entergy had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 14.83%. The business had revenue of $3.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Entergy Co. will post 7.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Entergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 13th. This is a boost from Entergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.13. Entergy’s payout ratio is currently 58.47%.

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.