CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Director Sells $240,746.00 in Stock

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Director Phillip Smith sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total value of $240,746.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 65,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,546,354.91. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $39.37 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $29.21 and a 12-month high of $40.50. The company has a market cap of $25.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.92, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.84.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results 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. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The firm had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, October 6th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $42.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho set a $42.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, October 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $254,000. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 21.5% during the 1st quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 1,653 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 18.0% during the 1st quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,228 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,557 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter worth $416,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.8% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 714,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,894,000 after purchasing an additional 19,561 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.