CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Sold by Vestcor Inc

Vestcor Inc reduced its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,553 shares during the quarter. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $588,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,287,000 after buying an additional 152,878 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 78,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,442,000 after acquiring an additional 12,422 shares in the last quarter. ING Groep NV purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,564,000. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $908,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 13.4% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,052,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,630,000 after purchasing an additional 124,529 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 1.7 %

CNP opened at $31.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $33.00. The company has a market cap of $20.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.16, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.39.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.63%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 55.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CNP shares. Bank of America began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.27.

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.