Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Acquires New Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,882 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $350,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 459.0% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,554 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 1,276 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $31.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $20.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.16, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $33.00. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.41.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.27.

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.