CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Bought by First Trust Advisors LP

First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 94.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 922,229 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 447,080 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.14% of CenterPoint Energy worth $29,262,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 5,167 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $164,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 11,907 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $378,000 after buying an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 13,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $441,000 after buying an additional 432 shares in the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $309,000 after acquiring an additional 461 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 53.0% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $38.17 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $38.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.88.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.73 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI upgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $35.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Friday. Barclays upgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $30.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.46.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.