Aspire Private Capital LLC Acquires New Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Aspire Private Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 15,583 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $445,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 3,664,835 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,704,000 after buying an additional 46,149 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $336,000. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 56,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,611,000 after buying an additional 950 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 43.7% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 7,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $206,000 after buying an additional 2,197 shares during the period. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $399,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on CNP. KeyCorp increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 target price (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Guggenheim cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.18.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $28.79. 471,466 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,199,054. The firm has a market cap of $18.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.16, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.78. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.42 and a 52-week high of $31.43. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.97.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.32. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.44% and a net margin of 10.55%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

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.