Quadrature Capital Ltd Acquires New Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 8,056 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 344,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,254,000 after purchasing an additional 18,992 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.3% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 165,682 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,449,000 after acquiring an additional 12,677 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $382,000. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 277,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,445,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 205.4% during the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 38,370 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 25,807 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $30.50 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $19.51 billion, a PE ratio of 21.48, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $29.93 and a 200 day moving average of $28.76. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.42 and a 12 month high of $31.57.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.62%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

Insider Activity

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp raised 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. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.00.

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.