You might want to take a look at NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) now

NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) stock jumped 0.98% on Thursday to $39.14 against a previous-day closing price of $38.76. With 2.13 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 4.03 million shares. During the session, the Utilities – Independent Power Producers company that operates in wider Utilities sector, reached to the highest price of $39.17 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $38.63. The 52-week range on NRG shows that it touched its highest point at $45.80 and its lowest point at $30.25 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $41.25. With its current market cap of 8.70 billion, NRG has annualized dividend of $1.51 while the current yield stands at 3.86%. 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 2.06%, but this was up by 5.93% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 13.98% while six-month performance rose 27.00%. The stock lost -9.73% in the past year, while it has gained 23.00% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for NRG yields -9.04 with Next year EPS estimates of 6.61. For the next quarter, that number is 4.43. This implies an EPS growth rate of -42.00% for this year and 42.55% 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, 231.00 million NRG shares are outstanding with a float of 226.28 million shares on hand for trading. On Aug 30, 2023, short shares totaled 14.21 million, which was 6.20% higher than short shares on Jul 30, 2023.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 102.51% of NRG’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 8.68% of NRG, in contrast to 52.69% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 47.09%. As the largest shareholder in NRG with 12.65% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 29,117,122 shares worth 29,117,122. A second-largest stockholder of NRG, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 18,047,395 shares, controlling over 7.84% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in NRG, holding 14,430,839 shares or 6.27% stake. With a 3.11% stake in NRG, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 7,165,334 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Putnam Large Cap Value Fund, which owns about 2.95% of NRG stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 6,783,972 shares valued at 257.72 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund holds 2.59% of the stake in NRG, owning 5,971,334 shares worth 226.85 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 Jun 29, 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 $33.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $41.25. Based on these targets, NRG could surge 17.53% to reach the target high and fall by -15.69% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 5.39% 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 16 Buys and 0 Sells. In these transactions, 7,332 shares were bought while 0 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 90 while that of sell transactions has risen to 22 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 381,010 while 92,350 shares were sold.