California Public Employees Retirement System Grows Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,924,792 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 47,305 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $92,804,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on CNP. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Evercore ISI raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of CNP stock opened at $36.25 on Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $36.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.66 billion, a PE ratio of 22.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $33.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08.

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

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.