Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Has $626,000 Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 518 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CNP shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.77.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE:CNP opened at $34.55 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $35.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.02.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date 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 presently 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.