CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Bought by Profund Advisors LLC

Profund Advisors LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 49.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 35,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,765 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,094,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CNP. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after buying an additional 1,484,079 shares during the last quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 487,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,112,000 after acquiring an additional 16,285 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $125,275,000 after acquiring an additional 53,655 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 53.9% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 447,978 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,878,000 after purchasing an additional 156,954 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 39.2% in the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 519,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,079,000 after purchasing an additional 146,222 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.36.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP stock opened at $28.94 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.69. The company has a market capitalization of $18.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.38, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $31.57.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.34%.

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.