AMF Tjanstepension AB Invests $7.71 Million in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

AMF Tjanstepension AB purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 248,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,708,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth $1,625,000. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 305,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,735,000 after buying an additional 60,223 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 837.7% in the first quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 210,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,985,000 after buying an additional 187,662 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at $1,109,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 86.4% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,413,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,282,000 after buying an additional 655,327 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of several research reports. Scotiabank dropped 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. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.90.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock traded down $0.14 on Wednesday, reaching $25.63. 10,955,749 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,030,282. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.42 and a 52 week high of $31.57. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.75 and a 200 day moving average of $28.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.40 billion, a PE ratio of 18.05, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. Equities 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

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.