ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 14,851 Shares of Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its position in shares of Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 245,749 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 14,851 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. owned about 0.07% of Eversource Energy worth $14,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Eversource Energy by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,539,895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,737,990,000 after buying an additional 430,587 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new stake in shares of Eversource Energy in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $808,783,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eversource Energy by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,040,171 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $613,233,000 after purchasing an additional 268,588 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Eversource Energy by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,019,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $477,647,000 after purchasing an additional 185,381 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Eversource Energy by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,956,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $337,270,000 after purchasing an additional 216,630 shares during the period. 79.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ES has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho raised their price objective on Eversource Energy from $62.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Scotiabank lowered Eversource Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Eversource Energy in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Eversource Energy from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Eversource Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.38.

Eversource Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ES opened at $57.91 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Eversource Energy has a 1 year low of $52.09 and a 1 year high of $69.01. The company’s 50-day moving average is $59.43 and its 200 day moving average is $62.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -36.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.62.

Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.05. Eversource Energy had a positive return on equity of 10.90% and a negative net margin of 4.73%. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Eversource Energy will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Eversource Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.715 per share. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 18th. Eversource Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -182.17%.

Eversource Energy Company Profile

Eversource Energy, a public utility holding company, engages in the energy delivery business. The company operates through Electric Distribution, Electric Transmission, Natural Gas Distribution, and Water Distribution segments. It is involved in the transmission and distribution of electricity; solar power facilities; and distribution of natural gas.