UniSuper Management Pty Ltd Increases Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 24.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,687,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 335,768 shares during the quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $65,479,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at about $313,456,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 31.6% during the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,859,693 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $288,765,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886,374 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3,842.1% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,609,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $59,135,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,714 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 81,362,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,989,256,000 after purchasing an additional 1,301,374 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tredje AP fonden boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,953.5% during the second quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 1,010,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,114,000 after purchasing an additional 960,978 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at CenterPoint Energy

In related news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total value of $240,746.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 65,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,546,354.91. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.14% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $42.00 price target for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.82.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP stock opened at $38.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.38. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.76 and a 1 year high of $40.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.67 and a 200 day moving average of $38.48. The company has a market cap of $25.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.52, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.59.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 11.37%.The business had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.70%.

About CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy, Inc (NYSE: CNP) is a Houston-based regulated utility company that provides electric and natural gas delivery services and related infrastructure operations. The company’s principal activities center on the transmission and distribution of electricity in the greater Houston metropolitan area and the distribution of natural gas to customers across several states in the Midwest and South. As a vertically integrated utility, CenterPoint focuses on the reliable delivery of energy through owned and operated networks of lines, pipelines and associated facilities.

CenterPoint’s core businesses include regulated electric transmission and distribution services, regulated natural gas distribution, and the operation and maintenance of energy infrastructure.