Empowered Funds LLC Purchases 809 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,585 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 809 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $311,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the second 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 during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,780,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $604,000 after buying an additional 484 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 176,111 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,456,000 after buying an additional 492 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on CNP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $32.49 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $21.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.52, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50-day moving average of $29.79 and a 200-day moving average of $29.18. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $32.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.63%.

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.