Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Reduces Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System decreased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 572,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 13,732 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $18,170,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the period. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $35.66 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $33.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.30. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $35.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CNP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Evercore ISI raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.50.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.