BankPlus Trust Department Buys Shares of 1,265 CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,265 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $40,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Leeward Investments LLC MA grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Leeward Investments LLC MA now owns 269,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,551,000 after buying an additional 60,370 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Funds Management LTD purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,764,000. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $215,000. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 85,759 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,721,000 after buying an additional 2,069 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 98,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,121,000 after buying an additional 4,145 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $34.19 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.28 billion, a PE ratio of 21.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.95. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $34.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.57%. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.35%.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.