West Tower Group LLC Makes New $428,000 Investment in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

West Tower Group LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 13,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $428,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 91,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,908,000 after buying an additional 2,672 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 102,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,262,000 after buying an additional 15,069 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 41.0% in the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 4,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $140,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 51,008 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,619,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CNP shares. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective 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. Finally, 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.50.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $35.66 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $33.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.30. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $35.88. The firm has a market cap of $23.27 billion, a PE ratio of 22.43, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

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.