CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Purchased by Jones Financial Companies Lllp

Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 57.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,195 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,810 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $419,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,104,000 after buying an additional 42,578 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at $908,000. ING Groep NV purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,564,000. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after buying an additional 24,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $265,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI raised CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.77.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:CNP opened at $34.55 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $32.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.02. The company has a market capitalization of $22.51 billion, a PE ratio of 21.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $35.01.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. On average, research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.35%.

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.