Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 20.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,546 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $474,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.6% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 177,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,511,000 after acquiring an additional 4,488 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 49.9% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 35,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after purchasing an additional 11,765 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,484,079 shares during the last quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 487,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,112,000 after purchasing an additional 16,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $125,275,000 after buying an additional 53,655 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on CNP shares. Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.36.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP opened at $28.94 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $27.48 and its 200 day moving average is $28.69. The company has a market cap 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $31.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

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.