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Reasons to Add Entergy (ETR) to Your Portfolio Right Now

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Entergy Corporation’s (ETR - Free Report) strategic long-term investment plans to maintain utility support and upgrade distribution and transmission will further boost its performance. Given its growth opportunities, ETR makes for a solid investment option in the utility sector.

Let’s explore the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company a strong investment pick at the moment.

Growth Projections & Surprise History

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Entergy’s 2024 earnings per share (EPS) has increased 0.7% to $7.22 in the past 90 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 sales is pinned at $13.35 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 1.7%.

The company’s long-term (three-to-five-year) earnings growth is 6.43%. It delivered an average earnings surprise of 4.4% in the last four quarters.

Return on Equity

Return on equity (ROE) indicates how efficiently a company has been utilizing its funds to generate higher returns. Currently, Entergy’s ROE is 10.77%, higher than the industry’s average of 7.01%. This indicates that the company has been utilizing its funds more constructively than its peers in the electric power utility industry.

Solvency

The times interest earned ratio is a solvency ratio. It is used to measure how well the company can cover its interest obligations. The times interest earned ratio at the end of third-quarter 2023 was 2.8, which being greater than one indicates that ETR is in a good position to meet its interest obligations.

Dividend History

The company has been consistently paying dividends to its shareholders. In October 2023, its board of directors approved a 5.6% increase in its quarterly dividends. The revised quarterly dividend is $1.13 per share. The company’s new annualized dividend rate is $4.52 compared with the previous annual rate of $4.28 per share. Its current dividend yield is 4.41%, better than the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s 1.37%.

Systematic Investments

Entergy has a capital investment plan worth $16 billion to maintain utility support and upgrade distribution and transmission during the 2023-2026 period. Out of which, $7 billion is for transmission and distribution. The company is also developing its capital investment plan for the 2024-2026 period and currently anticipates making approximately $19.6 billion in capital investments during that period.

Price Performance

In the past six months, Entergy’s shares have gained 4.2% against the industry’s decline of 7.9%.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Other Stocks to Consider

A few other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are NRG Energy (NRG - Free Report) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Consolidated Edison (ED - Free Report) and OGE Energy (OGE - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

NRG Energy’s long-term earnings growth rate is 13.75%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 4.7% in the last four quarters.

Consolidated Edison’s long-term earnings growth rate is 2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2024 EPS is pinned at $5.29, implying a year-over-year increase of 5.5%.

OGE Energy’s long-term earnings growth rate is 3.65%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 8.3% in the last four quarters.

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