Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Purchases 1,462 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 15.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,028 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,462 shares during the quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $342,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $541,000 after buying an additional 388 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $557,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% during the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.3 %

CNP stock opened at $28.17 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.68.

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

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Scotiabank decreased 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 research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.36.

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.