Arizona State Retirement System Buys 6,014 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 189,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,014 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $6,006,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 566.5% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,744,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,330,000 after acquiring an additional 1,482,966 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 98.1% during the 3rd quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,536,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,208,000 after acquiring an additional 760,956 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $442,231,000 after acquiring an additional 370,790 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 135.0% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 586,529 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,255,000 after acquiring an additional 336,984 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $147,387,000 after acquiring an additional 247,944 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 2.6 %

NYSE CNP opened at $34.26 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $34.85. The company has a market cap of $22.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s fifty day moving average is $32.68 and its 200 day moving average is $30.79.

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. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 55.35%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CNP. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price 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 assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.65.

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.