Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Has $1.55 Million Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lowered its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 54,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,395 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,550,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,565,000 after acquiring an additional 120,085 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 305,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,735,000 after acquiring an additional 60,223 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 433,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,372,000 after acquiring an additional 115,029 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,209,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,559,000 after acquiring an additional 256,820 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 209,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,972,000 after acquiring an additional 45,389 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total value of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $31.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $19.83 billion, a PE ratio of 21.83, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $29.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.06. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.42 and a 1 year high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Barclays raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.80.

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.