Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Acquires 5,526 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 13.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,463 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,526 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,408,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% in the first 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 grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 2,961,464 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578,948 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,952,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $170,077,000 after purchasing an additional 46,232 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP stock opened at $28.17 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.47 and a 200 day moving average of $28.68. 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 company has a market cap of $18.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.84, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CNP shares. KeyCorp cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price 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. StockNews.com upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently 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.