204,442 Shares in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP Bought by Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 204,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,511,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Motco increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 107.8% in the 1st quarter. Motco now owns 1,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at CenterPoint Energy

In other news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total transaction of $240,746.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 65,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,546,354.91. This trade represents a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CNP. Barclays raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Mizuho set a $42.00 target price 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 report on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, October 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $44.00 price objective on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.50.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $39.58 on Thursday. 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’s fifty day moving average is $38.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.88. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $29.96 and a 52 week high of $40.50. The company has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a PE ratio of 25.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 10.25%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.70%.

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.