7,344 Shares in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Purchased by Souders Financial Advisors

Souders Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 7,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. US Bancorp DE grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,780,000 after buying an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 175,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,220,000 after purchasing an additional 6,597 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 897,337 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,400,000 after purchasing an additional 7,135 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 23.4% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 307,560 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,048,000 after purchasing an additional 58,316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $72,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective for the company. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Guggenheim cut CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.5 %

CNP opened at $33.87 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.30, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $34.85.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. Analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.35%.

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.