Swiss National Bank Has $55.86 Million Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 24,400 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.29% of CenterPoint Energy worth $55,863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $557,000 after buying an additional 434 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the second quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,780,000 after buying an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on CNP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP 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 stock has a market cap of $20.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.47 and a 200-day moving average of $29.12. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

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

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.