AQR Capital Management LLC Decreases Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

AQR Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 32.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 515,606 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 244,403 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 0.08% of CenterPoint Energy worth $15,850,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $557,000 after purchasing an additional 434 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the first quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the second quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.6 %

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $29.89 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The firm has a market cap of $19.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a fifty day moving average of $27.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.73. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The firm 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 period in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 59.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.55.

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.