National Bank of Canada FI Increases Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 87.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 588,987 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 275,321 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned about 0.09% of CenterPoint Energy worth $17,168,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after buying an additional 120,085 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,209,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,559,000 after purchasing an additional 256,820 shares in the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $399,000. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 37.5% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,540,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,361,000 after purchasing an additional 420,010 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 32.5% during the 4th quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA now owns 416,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,912,000 after buying an additional 102,271 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CNP shares. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price target (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank reduced their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Guggenheim dropped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. StockNews.com upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.18.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $29.60 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.42 and a 1 year high of $31.43. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.11. The company has a market capitalization of $18.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.25.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.