Jennison Associates LLC Has $202.13 Million Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Jennison Associates LLC lowered its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,870,372 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 160,023 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC owned approximately 1.05% of CenterPoint Energy worth $202,126,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CNP. Bank of America started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $31.42 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $20.47 billion, a PE ratio of 20.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $29.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.12. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. Analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.67%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.98%.

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.