CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Holdings Lifted by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,655 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned 0.63% of CenterPoint Energy worth $125,275,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $94,750,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $302,070,000 after buying an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after acquiring an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $63,758,000. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578,948 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective on the stock. Scotiabank lowered 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, StockNews.com raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.36.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of CNP opened at $28.17 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $27.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $31.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 56.34%.

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.