Oak Thistle LLC Sells 28,794 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Oak Thistle LLC lessened its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 57.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,555 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 28,794 shares during the quarter. Oak Thistle LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $836,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $33,000. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $61,000. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth about $71,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP stock opened at $38.26 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $39.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.08. The company has a market capitalization of $24.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.22, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.56. 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 quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.51.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 previous year, the firm posted $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. 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 payout ratio is currently 55.70%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of CenterPoint Energy 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CNP. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Mizuho set a $42.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. KeyCorp upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, December 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.64.

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.