Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Makes New $101,000 Investment in Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P acquired a new stake in shares of Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,338 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $101,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Delta Asset Management LLC TN raised its stake in shares of Entergy by 87.3% in the 4th quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 1,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. raised its position in Entergy by 99.8% in the fourth quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 6,060 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $459,000 after purchasing an additional 3,027 shares in the last quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Entergy by 158.8% during the fourth quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 21,864 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,658,000 after purchasing an additional 13,417 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its stake in Entergy by 101.6% during the fourth quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 779,183 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $59,078,000 after purchasing an additional 392,601 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Entergy by 105.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,363,219 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $558,279,000 after purchasing an additional 3,773,492 shares in the last quarter. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ETR. StockNews.com raised Entergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, December 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Entergy from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Entergy from $165.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Entergy from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Entergy from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.75.

Entergy Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ETR opened at $84.38 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $83.34 and a 200-day moving average of $75.96. Entergy Corporation has a one year low of $50.19 and a one year high of $88.38. The stock has a market cap of $36.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.24 billion. Entergy had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 10.68%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.26 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Entergy Corporation will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Entergy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Entergy’s payout ratio is 98.77%.

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.