CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Bought by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 79,389,191 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 120,829 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of CenterPoint Energy worth $2,519,019,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on CNP shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI upgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP opened at $35.18 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $36.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.96 billion, a PE ratio of 22.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS 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.