NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) Short Interest Update

NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,300,000 shares, a drop of 29.3% from the January 15th total of 8,910,000 shares. Approximately 3.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,830,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.2 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Bruce Chung sold 20,000 shares of NRG Energy stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.63, for a total value of $1,952,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,780,794.02. The trade was a 22.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Robert J. Gaudette sold 60,000 shares of NRG Energy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.41, for a total value of $5,484,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 64,448 shares in the company, valued at $5,891,191.68. This represents a 48.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.86% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in NRG Energy by 6.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,399,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $494,225,000 after purchasing an additional 313,478 shares in the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. boosted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 2,828,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $255,142,000 after acquiring an additional 7,500 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,663,441 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $242,639,000 after acquiring an additional 182,481 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,282,672 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,943,000 after acquiring an additional 316,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Appaloosa LP boosted its stake in shares of NRG Energy by 81.5% during the 4th quarter. Appaloosa LP now owns 1,815,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $163,749,000 after acquiring an additional 815,180 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NRG has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded NRG Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $74.00 to $126.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Citigroup raised their target price on NRG Energy from $84.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on NRG Energy from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on NRG Energy from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded NRG Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $93.00 to $113.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.43.

NRG Energy Price Performance

Shares of NRG Energy stock traded up $1.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $107.64. The stock had a trading volume of 1,661,040 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,078,556. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.57, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.05, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a fifty day moving average of $99.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $91.54. NRG Energy has a fifty-two week low of $51.42 and a fifty-two week high of $115.38.

NRG Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. This is an increase from NRG Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. NRG Energy’s payout ratio is 44.22%.

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.