Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Raises Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 590,892 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,396 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System owned 0.09% of CenterPoint Energy worth $18,306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the period. Tobam purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth $35,000. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.73.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP traded up $0.22 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $27.30. The company had a trading volume of 5,825,982 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,285,379. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.66. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.34%.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.