Strategic Investment Advisors MI Sells 1,507 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Strategic Investment Advisors MI trimmed its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 11.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,507 shares during the quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $385,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. ING Groep NV bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth $2,564,000. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth $908,000. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter worth about $705,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,930,000 after purchasing an additional 56,037 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Scotiabank upgraded 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.46.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $32.86 on Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $33.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. The business has a fifty day moving average of $31.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.72. The stock has a market cap of $21.41 billion, a PE ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 55.63%.

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.