Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Sells 246,000 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board decreased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 17.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,167,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 246,000 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 0.18% of CenterPoint Energy worth $36,182,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 388 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the 1st 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. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% in the 1st 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 boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in 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 grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $609,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:CNP opened at $28.17 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $31.57. The company has a market capitalization of $18.02 billion, a PE ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $27.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.36.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.