Vontobel Holding Ltd. Buys New Shares in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,718 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,780,000 after acquiring an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 53.0% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $34.32 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $32.34 and its 200-day moving average is $30.28. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $34.39. The firm has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Equities analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price for the company. Barclays increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy 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.