Top investors say NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) ticks everything they need

NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) stock jumped 0.53% on Wednesday to $33.99 against a previous-day closing price of $33.81. With 3.63 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 4.45 million shares. During the session, the Utilities – Independent Power Producers company that operates in wider Utilities sector, reached to the highest price of $34.18 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $33.22. The 52-week range on NRG shows that it touched its highest point at $47.82 and its lowest point at $30.25 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $39.75. With its current market cap of 7.82 billion, NRG has annualized dividend of $1.51 while the current yield stands at 4.44%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.01.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of NRG was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 1.74%, but this was down by -0.21% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 1.43% while six-month performance fell -17.42%. The stock lost -26.40% in the past year, while it has gained 6.82% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for NRG yields -8.13 with Next year EPS estimates of 6.08. For the next quarter, that number is 0.42. This implies an EPS growth rate of -42.00% for this year and 25.80% for next year. EPS is expected to decline by -3.30% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 27.80%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 230.00 million NRG shares are outstanding with a float of 228.25 million shares on hand for trading. On Apr 27, 2023, short shares totaled 14.14 million, which was 6.15% higher than short shares on Mar 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Mauricio Gutierrez as the firm’s Pres, CEO & Director, Mr. Alberto Fornaro serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 99.97% of NRG’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 8.63% of NRG, in contrast to 56.45% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 44.21%. As the largest shareholder in NRG with 13.48% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 30,977,953 shares worth 30,977,953. A second-largest stockholder of NRG, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 24,781,112 shares, controlling over 10.79% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in NRG, holding 14,604,190 shares or 6.36% stake. With a 3.10% stake in NRG, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 7,127,197 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The iShares Tr. – Edge MSCI USA Quali, which owns about 2.91% of NRG stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 6,686,614 shares valued at 228.48 million. Putnam Large Cap Value Fund holds 2.86% of the stake in NRG, owning 6,569,052 shares worth 224.46 million.

An Overview of Recent Financials:

Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, NRG reported revenue of $7.28B and operating income of $887.00M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $1.06B and diluted EPS was $2.16.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for NRG since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With NRG analysts setting a high price target of $46.00 and a low target of $34.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $39.33. Based on these targets, NRG could surge 35.33% to reach the target high and rise by 0.03% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 15.71% from current levels.

EPS: Estimates vs Actual

It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded NRG stock several times over the past three months with 17 Buys and 0 Sells. In these transactions, 7,927 shares were bought while 0 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 89 while that of sell transactions has risen to 28 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 356,629 while 42,830 shares were sold.