Profund Advisors LLC Acquires 7,146 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Profund Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 27.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,146 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,206,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter worth about $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Motco lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 107.8% in the first quarter. Motco now owns 1,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total transaction of $240,746.00. Following the sale, the director owned 65,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,546,354.91. The trade was a 8.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 25th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Mizuho set a $42.00 price target on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.50.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of CNP opened at $39.72 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $29.96 and a 1-year high of $40.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $38.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.14, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion during 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 last year, the business posted $0.31 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio is 55.70%.

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.