Camden National Bank Invests $206,000 in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Camden National Bank purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,487 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays upped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $34.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.88. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $34.85. The firm has a market cap of $22.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. On average, analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 55.35%.

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.