AA Financial Advisors LLC Makes New $217,000 Investment in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

AA Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 6,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of CNP. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,449,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,941,000 after acquiring an additional 334,631 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 46,645,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,480,060,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,169 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,446,036,000 after purchasing an additional 27,799,744 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,490,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $490,205,000 after purchasing an additional 406,832 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,880,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $186,573,000 after buying an additional 431,260 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CNP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Argus raised CenterPoint Energy to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays upgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $30.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.04.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $35.72 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $37.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $34.70. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $39.31. The company has a market cap of $23.32 billion, a PE ratio of 23.97, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.80% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The company had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.06%.

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.