CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Purchased by Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 174,278 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,214 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $6,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Linscomb Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $613,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $92,025,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,317,000. Fiduciary Family Office LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,138,000. Finally, Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CNP shares. Scotiabank upped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.38.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE:CNP opened at $38.05 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $37.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.61, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.79. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.65 and a 1 year high of $39.39.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.15). The business had revenue of $1.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.20 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.16% and a net margin of 10.42%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.54%.

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.