Tectonic Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Tectonic Advisors LLC grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 19,136 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,237 shares during the period. Tectonic Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $607,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 418 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,780,000 after acquiring an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 53.0% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,000 after buying an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on CNP shares. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.46.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $32.27 on Thursday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.03 billion, a PE ratio of 21.37, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.89.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 55.63%.

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.