Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Makes New $263,000 Investment in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 9,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $263,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CNP. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 6.2% during the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 672,081 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,163,000 after acquiring an additional 39,022 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 487.8% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 40,024 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,140,000 after purchasing an additional 33,215 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 66.8% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 22,274 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 8,917 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 675.4% during the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 138,363 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,942,000 after buying an additional 120,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 78.3% in the first quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 282,194 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,040,000 after buying an additional 123,915 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CNP. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $30.00 to $29.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 20th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.60.

Insider Transactions at CenterPoint Energy

In related 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 value of $166,811.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $28.88 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.42 and a 1 year high of $31.57. The firm has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.34, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $30.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.25.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.50 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.