Entergy (NYSE:ETR) Price Target Raised to $78.00

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) had its target price boosted by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $75.00 to $78.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential downside of 6.85% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also commented on ETR. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Entergy from $79.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Entergy from $87.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Entergy from $165.00 to $82.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Entergy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, December 29th. Finally, KeyCorp cut Entergy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.75.

Entergy Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE ETR opened at $83.74 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $74.96. The company has a market cap of $36.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. Entergy has a 12-month low of $50.19 and a 12-month high of $88.38.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 10.68% and a net margin of 8.90%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Entergy will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Entergy

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 101.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,133,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,952,773,000 after purchasing an additional 26,312,267 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 142.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 17,594,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,334,034,000 after purchasing an additional 10,347,926 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 71.4% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,884,421 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $976,895,000 after purchasing an additional 5,368,396 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 90.7% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,612,407 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $956,273,000 after purchasing an additional 5,998,760 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Entergy by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,408,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,501,509,000 after purchasing an additional 128,667 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

About Entergy

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.