Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA Decreases Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA reduced its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 15.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 215,466 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 38,136 shares during the period. CenterPoint Energy comprises about 1.1% of Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest position. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $7,806,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Curat Global LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at $25,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 58.9% in the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,079 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $36.59 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $39.31. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.51. The firm has a market cap of $23.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.59.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.41%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.06%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Argus raised shares of CenterPoint Energy to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.04.

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.