V Square Quantitative Management LLC Boosts Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,940 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,290 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $645,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,039,000. Teilinger Capital Ltd. purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth $26,478,000. Seven Grand Managers LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $5,884,000. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC now owns 83,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,469,000 after buying an additional 10,970 shares during the period. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 43.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 12,680 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 3,862 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.91.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of CNP stock opened at $30.11 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $28.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.89. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $31.57. The company has a market cap of $19.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.79%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.15%.

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.