CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP Shares Bought by Forsta AP Fonden

Forsta AP Fonden lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 7.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 123,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,200 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $4,534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. National Pension Service grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 878,125 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,262,000 after buying an additional 7,045 shares during the last quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in the second quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 8,138 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc. acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $352,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 41.0% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 8,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $313,000 after buying an additional 2,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 199,797 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,341,000 after acquiring an additional 21,445 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on CNP. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 25th. Mizuho set a $42.00 price target on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, October 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $44.00 target price for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.50.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.4%

CNP opened at $39.74 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $25.95 billion, a PE ratio of 25.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.51. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $29.97 and a 1 year high of $40.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $38.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.90.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The business 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 business posted $0.31 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share 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 paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 55.70%.

Insider Transactions at CenterPoint Energy

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The shares were 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 $2,546,354.91. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.