68,956 Shares in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP Bought by Advisors Preferred LLC

Advisors Preferred LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 68,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,518,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Motco increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 107.8% in the first quarter. Motco now owns 1,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on CNP shares. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, October 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $44.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $42.00 price target for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.5%

CNP stock opened at $38.43 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.09 billion, a PE ratio of 24.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.57. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $28.57 and a 12 month high of $40.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 10.25%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.70%.

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.