Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Sells 15,186 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 14.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 91,130 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 15,186 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,681,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1,158.2% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 2,189 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 20,789 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $612,000 after buying an additional 602 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 29.5% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 309,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,119,000 after acquiring an additional 70,688 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 17.6% during the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 32,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $949,000 after purchasing an additional 4,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,398,000 after acquiring an additional 110,905 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $32.66 on Thursday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $32.86. The company has a market cap of $21.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.63, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $29.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.