By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP – Free Report) by 11.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 67,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,782 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,104,000 after purchasing an additional 42,578 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter worth about $908,000. ING Groep NV bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter worth about $2,564,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after buying an additional 24,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $265,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CNP shares. Barclays raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.65.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on CenterPoint Energy
CenterPoint Energy Price Performance
Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $34.26 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $32.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.79. The company has a market cap of $22.33 billion, a PE ratio of 21.55, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 $34.85.
CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. On average, analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.
CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.35%.
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.
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