CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Sold by Atlas Capital Advisors LLC

Atlas Capital Advisors LLC reduced its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,461 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,157 shares during the quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $324,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $94,750,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $302,070,000 after purchasing an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $141,666,000 after buying an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $63,758,000. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 391.0% during the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 2,314,797 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $66,134,000 after buying an additional 1,843,333 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CNP shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday. KeyCorp downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank reduced their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.73.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $27.30. 5,815,328 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,285,379. The stock has a market cap of $17.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.06. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 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, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

CenterPoint Energy 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.