CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Acquired by Ensign Peak Advisors Inc

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 487,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,285 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned about 0.08% of CenterPoint Energy worth $15,112,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth $63,758,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578,948 shares during the period. Finally, Maple Brown Abbott Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth approximately $42,548,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $28.94 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.20. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $31.57. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $27.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.38, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 56.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CNP shares. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.