Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC Decreases Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC reduced its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 97.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,559,962 shares during the quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,079,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the 3rd 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. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective on the stock. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two equities 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $33.71 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $32.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The company has a market capitalization of $21.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.20, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $34.85.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. Sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 55.35%.

CenterPoint Energy 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.