First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Invests $292,000 in NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. acquired a new position in shares of NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 5,652 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $292,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Savant Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of NRG Energy by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 12,749 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $659,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NRG Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $354,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NRG Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $118,000. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of NRG Energy by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 8,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 1,060 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carret Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NRG Energy by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC now owns 8,810 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 510 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on NRG shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NRG Energy from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NRG Energy from $51.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of NRG Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of NRG Energy from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of NRG Energy from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NRG Energy news, VP Rasesh M. Patel sold 49,092 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.59, for a total transaction of $3,072,668.28. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 356,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,342,251.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

NRG Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NRG opened at $73.40 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.49, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.76 billion, a P/E ratio of -68.60 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s fifty day moving average is $68.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.03. NRG Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.62 and a 1 year high of $83.03.

NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $6.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.51 billion. NRG Energy had a negative net margin of 0.70% and a positive return on equity of 44.03%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NRG Energy, Inc. will post 5.36 earnings per share for the current year.

NRG Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.4075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.22%. NRG Energy’s payout ratio is currently -152.34%.

About NRG Energy

NRG Energy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy and home services company in the United States and Canada. It operates through Texas; East; West/Services/Other; Vivint Smart Home; and Corporate Activities segments. The company produces and sells electricity generated using coal, oil, solar, and battery storage; natural gas; and a cloud-based home platform, including hardware, software, sales, installation, customer service, technical support, and professional monitoring solutions.