Truist Financial Corp Raises Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 85,759 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,069 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,721,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,104,000 after buying an additional 42,578 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter worth $908,000. ING Groep NV bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter worth $2,564,000. Swiss National Bank increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,863,000 after purchasing an additional 24,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $265,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $34.19 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $32.43 and a 200 day moving average of $30.46. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $34.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.95.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. As a group, research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CNP shares. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective on the stock. Finally, Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.65.

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.