Shares of NRG Energy Inc. NRG, +3.41% charged up 3.9% toward a one-year high in afternoon trading Wednesday, after Guggenheim turned bullish on the independent power producer the day before earnings are scheduled for release. Analyst Shahriar Pourreza raised his rating to buy, after being at neutral since March 2021, while bumping up his stock price target to $50 from $36.
“These include our impressions of not only management, which are much improved following recent meetings , but also Smart Home itself, where disclosures and time with the company have improved our understanding of the business,” Pourreza wrote. The company is slated to report third-quarter results before Thursday’s open, with the FactSet consensus for earnings per share at $2.55. The stock has fallen the day that the past three quarterly reports were released, by an average of 4.4%.