Blueshift Asset Management LLC Makes New $589,000 Investment in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 16,244 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $589,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $254,000. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 157,052 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,983,000 after acquiring an additional 8,134 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $227,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 110.5% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 5,022 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,000 after acquiring an additional 2,636 shares during the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 25.6% during the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 28,918 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $918,000 after acquiring an additional 5,889 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on CNP. Wall Street Zen downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Argus upgraded CenterPoint Energy to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Mizuho set a $39.00 target price on CenterPoint Energy and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.38.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $38.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $36.74 and its 200 day moving average is $35.81. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $39.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.34 billion, a PE ratio of 27.14, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.58.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.15). CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 9.16%. The company had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.