Cibc World Markets Corp Purchases 15,069 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Cibc World Markets Corp boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 17.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 102,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,069 shares during the quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,262,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $442,231,000 after buying an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $147,387,000 after purchasing an additional 247,944 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,116,586 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,619,000 after purchasing an additional 160,154 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,177,364 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,478,000 after purchasing an additional 65,139 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $97,348,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:CNP opened at $35.93 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $35.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $33.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.36. The company has a market capitalization of $23.45 billion, a PE ratio of 22.60, 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 current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.