Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. Buys Shares of 19,384 CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 19,384 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $712,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth $254,000. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 24.7% in the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 100,485 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,641,000 after purchasing an additional 19,908 shares during the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 111.2% during the 1st quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 13,774 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,251 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.3% during the first quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 12,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $453,000 after buying an additional 3,957 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.9% in the first quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 9,359 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total value of $240,746.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 65,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,546,354.91. The trade was a 8.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on CNP. Barclays upped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Mizuho set a $42.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.18.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $37.80 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.07. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.59 and a 52-week 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 posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.70%.

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.