Evergy upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Ladenburg

Ladenburg upgraded Evergy (EVRG) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $68.50, up from $59. The firm says that since its initiation in April 2024, its forecast of customer demand growth has increased to between 2%-3% from 2% and rate base growth has increased to 8% from 6%. The improvement reflects Evergy’s recent announcements for data centers that has led to higher capex spending, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Ladenburg points out Evergy has identified up to 6,000 MW of added potential load driven largely by artificial intelligence and data centers.