By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Atria Investments Inc raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP – Free Report) by 57.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 34,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,563 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,097,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,930,000 after buying an additional 56,037 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,969,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,441,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $42,422,000 after buying an additional 5,981 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 15.2% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 4,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,000 after buying an additional 556 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
CNP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.77.
View Our Latest Analysis on CenterPoint Energy
CenterPoint Energy Price Performance
CNP opened at $34.59 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.04. The firm has a market cap of $22.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $35.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.
CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. Equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.
CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. This is a positive change 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%.
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.
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