Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. Purchases Shares of 27,340 CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 27,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $779,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 40,811 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 406 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.5% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 464 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,377 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 492 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.5% during the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 111,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,164,000 after purchasing an additional 510 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. now owns 48,112 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,341,000 after purchasing an additional 529 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. Barclays increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.70.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of CNP stock opened at $31.31 on Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.42 and a 12-month high of $31.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $29.81 and its 200 day moving average is $28.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.91.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 56.34%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.