abrdn plc Acquires 45,710 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

abrdn plc raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 4.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,143,997 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 45,710 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $36,190,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 566.5% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,744,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,330,000 after buying an additional 1,482,966 shares during the period. Teilinger Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,478,000. Zimmer Partners LP raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 98.1% in the third quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,536,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,208,000 after buying an additional 760,956 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1,391.8% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 536,379 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,800,000 after buying an additional 500,425 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% in the third 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 period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.46.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE CNP opened at $32.27 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $32.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.89. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $33.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.03 billion, a PE ratio of 21.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 55.63%.

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.