Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Has $2.78 Million Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 97,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,236 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,782,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $229,436,000 after buying an additional 1,578,948 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,952,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $170,077,000 after buying an additional 46,232 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,402,677 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $154,354,000 after buying an additional 54,476 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after buying an additional 2,428,640 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,990,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $114,001,000 after buying an additional 723,663 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.00.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP traded up $0.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $30.46. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 705,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,436,030. The firm has a market cap of $19.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $30.15 and a 200-day moving average of $28.82. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.42 and a 12 month high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 EPS. Research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.34%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.