VAUGHAN & Co SECURITIES INC. Has $506,000 Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

VAUGHAN & Co SECURITIES INC. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 14.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,048 shares during the period. VAUGHAN & Co SECURITIES INC.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $506,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CNP. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the first quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Tobam bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.73.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock traded up $0.22 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $27.30. 5,825,982 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,285,379. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.20. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $28.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.23, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 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.