Blair William & Co. IL Sells 510 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Blair William & Co. IL lessened its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 510 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $305,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $442,231,000 after acquiring an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $147,387,000 after purchasing an additional 247,944 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,116,586 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,619,000 after purchasing an additional 160,154 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,431.1% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,408,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $108,153,000 after purchasing an additional 3,185,932 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $97,348,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.46.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP opened at $36.14 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $37.70. The company has a market cap of $23.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.73, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $34.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. On average, analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.