Tredje AP fonden Sells 1,550 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Tredje AP fonden decreased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 98,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,550 shares during the period. Tredje AP fonden’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,048,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,754,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,386,168,000 after purchasing an additional 865,120 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $499,962,000 after buying an additional 556,802 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $302,070,000 after buying an additional 2,961,464 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $229,436,000 after buying an additional 1,578,948 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,952,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,077,000 after acquiring an additional 46,232 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE CNP opened at $28.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $27.54 and its 200-day moving average is $28.67. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $31.57. The firm has a market cap of $18.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.83%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 56.34%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CNP shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.36.

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.