5,738 Shares in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Purchased by Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 5,738 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 80,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,557,000 after purchasing an additional 2,283 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,104,000 after purchasing an additional 42,578 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 32.6% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,314,131 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $73,427,000 after purchasing an additional 569,389 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 57.1% during the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 34,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,116,586 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,619,000 after purchasing an additional 160,154 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on CNP. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective 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. Barclays raised CenterPoint Energy from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 target price (up from $35.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $42.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.04.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of CNP opened at $36.99 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.26, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $37.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $34.42. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $39.31.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.73 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.55 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.38%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 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.