Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Purchases New Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 17,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $640,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,449,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,774,941,000 after buying an additional 334,631 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 46,645,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,480,060,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,169 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,446,036,000 after purchasing an additional 27,799,744 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,490,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $490,205,000 after purchasing an additional 406,832 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,880,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $186,573,000 after purchasing an additional 431,260 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CNP shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.21.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $38.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a PE ratio of 26.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $36.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $39.31.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.15). CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 9.16%. The firm had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. Research 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.06%.

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.