Hennessy Advisors Inc. Sells 19,600 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. reduced its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 4.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 455,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 19,600 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of CenterPoint Energy worth $12,984,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 163.7% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 894 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Western Pacific Wealth Management LP bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 73.1% during the fourth quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 2,094 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 884 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CNP. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 20th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total value of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of CNP traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $30.80. The company had a trading volume of 1,369,301 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,472,936. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The company has a market capitalization of $19.70 billion, a PE ratio of 21.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.42 and a one year high of $31.57. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $29.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.78.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.03% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The company had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 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.