State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Acquires 5,907 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 210,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,907 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $7,723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. AlphaQuest LLC grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3,093.2% in the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 13,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $501,000 after purchasing an additional 13,208 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,525,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $56,048,000 after buying an additional 51,192 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the second quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 267,671 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,834,000 after buying an additional 6,386 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at about $661,000. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.2% in the second quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 21,377 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $785,000 after buying an additional 469 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $39.56 on Monday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.57 and a 12-month high of $40.50. The business’s fifty day moving average is $38.54 and its 200 day moving average is $37.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. The stock has a market cap of $25.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. 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 business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Mizuho set a $42.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.25.

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.