Intech Investment Management LLC Purchases 15,449 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 51.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,612 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,449 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,676,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CNP. Scotiabank lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target 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. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group boosted their price objective 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, Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $42.00 target price on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.50.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP stock opened at $39.58 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.59 and a 1-year high of $40.50. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $39.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.93. The company has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.05, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 55.70%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total transaction of $240,746.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 65,577 shares in the company, valued at $2,546,354.91. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.