Utah Retirement Systems Buys 2,300 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Utah Retirement Systems increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 107,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,300 shares during the quarter. Utah Retirement Systems’ holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,397,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of CNP. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,449,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,941,000 after purchasing an additional 334,631 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 46,645,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,480,060,000 after acquiring an additional 1,922,169 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,446,036,000 after acquiring an additional 27,799,744 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,490,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $490,205,000 after acquiring an additional 406,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,880,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $186,573,000 after purchasing an additional 431,260 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on CNP. Argus upgraded CenterPoint Energy to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Barclays upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.79.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $38.61 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $39.00. The company has a market cap of $25.20 billion, a PE ratio of 24.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $35.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $33.13. 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 results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.02). CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The business had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.73 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 59.06%.

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.