Magellan Asset Management Ltd Reduces Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Magellan Asset Management Ltd trimmed its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 16.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 464,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 88,127 shares during the quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd owned 0.07% of CenterPoint Energy worth $14,728,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP stock opened at $36.96 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $37.28. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $34.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.92. The company has a market capitalization of $24.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price for the company. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI raised CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.46.

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.