Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 15,750 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 7.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 213,952 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,750 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $7,848,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $92,025,000. GQG Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth approximately $78,632,000. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 31.6% during the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,859,693 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $288,765,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886,374 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2,845.6% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,938,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,222,000 after purchasing an additional 1,872,429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 50.2% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,118,233 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $185,434,000 after purchasing an additional 1,709,682 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, October 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $44.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. UBS Group increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Barclays lifted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.0%

CNP stock opened at $39.37 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.70 billion, a PE ratio of 24.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $29.21 and a 52 week high of $40.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $38.76 and a 200 day moving average of $37.84.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 10.25%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.31 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 55.70%.

Insider Activity at CenterPoint Energy

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total value of $240,746.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 65,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,546,354.91. The trade was a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.