CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Acquired by State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 9.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 675,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 56,221 shares during the quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned about 0.11% of CenterPoint Energy worth $19,894,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,565,000 after purchasing an additional 120,085 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter worth $1,625,000. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 305,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,735,000 after purchasing an additional 60,223 shares during the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 837.7% during the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 210,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,985,000 after purchasing an additional 187,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $1,109,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $28.68. The company had a trading volume of 869,446 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,727,615. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.42 and a 1 year high of $31.57. The business has a 50-day moving average of $30.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.88. The company has a market cap of $18.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.92.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.79%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 56.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their price objective 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. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. StockNews.com raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.90.

Insider Transactions at CenterPoint Energy

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was 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 owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.