Energizer (ENR) Rating Reiterated by Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group restated their buy rating on shares of Energizer (NYSE:ENR) in a report published on Thursday morning. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a $70.00 target price on the stock.

“Pricing in US batteries has driven ENR’s industry sales growth well above the avg. in HPC/bevs over the latest 52-wks (+3.9% vs. +0.5%). Long thought to be a declining category, improving battery fundamentals should help drive multiple expansion at ENR, which is trading at 10x EV/EBITDA vs. 12.5x peer avg. Recent referral up to Euro Comm. for SPB battery deal does little to change our expectation of a positive outcome. ENR remains our top alpha-generating idea.”,” the firm’s analyst commented.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Energizer from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, April 6th. ValuEngine raised Energizer from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, May 31st. Bank of America increased their price target on Energizer from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 12th. TheStreet raised Energizer from a c rating to a b- rating in a report on Monday, June 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank downgraded Energizer from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Monday, April 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $62.30.

Shares of Energizer opened at $59.98 on Thursday, according to Marketbeat. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 21.86, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Energizer has a 1-year low of $40.64 and a 1-year high of $64.00. The firm has a market cap of $3.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.85.
Energizer (NYSE:ENR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 2nd. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.03. Energizer had a return on equity of 292.85% and a net margin of 7.13%. The firm had revenue of $374.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $374.32 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. sell-side analysts predict that Energizer will post 3.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 21st were issued a $0.29 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 18th. Energizer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.93%.

In other Energizer news, VP Susan K. Drath sold 13,904 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.27, for a total value of $879,706.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 22,367 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,415,160.09. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.79% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ENR. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Energizer in the first quarter valued at $181,490,000. Virtus Fund Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Energizer by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Virtus Fund Advisers LLC now owns 3,769,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $180,873,000 after buying an additional 707,896 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Energizer by 94.1% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 969,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,774,000 after buying an additional 470,010 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Energizer by 11.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,070,157 shares of the company’s stock valued at $242,501,000 after buying an additional 412,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Energizer by 79.3% in the first quarter. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. now owns 836,065 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,813,000 after buying an additional 369,746 shares in the last quarter. 99.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.