CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Acquired by Commonwealth Equity Services LLC

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 97,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,236 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,782,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 15,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $449,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 40,811 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,166,000 after buying an additional 406 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $377,000 after buying an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $310,000 after buying an additional 464 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,377 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 492 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 24th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.00.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.4 %

CNP stock traded up $0.13 on Friday, hitting $30.46. 705,358 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,436,030. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.42 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The business’s fifty day moving average is $30.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.03% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CenterPoint Energy Profile

CenterPoint Energy, Inc operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Electric and Natural Gas. The Electric segment includes electric transmission and distribution services to electric customers and electric generation assets, as well as optimizes assets in the wholesale power market.