Private Trust Co. NA Increases Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Private Trust Co. NA increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 99.0% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,637 shares during the quarter. Private Trust Co. NA’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Riverbend Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at about $212,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 10,524 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $387,000 after purchasing an additional 802 shares during the last quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 31.3% in the 2nd quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC now owns 10,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $369,000 after buying an additional 2,396 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,308,000. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 49.6% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 3,226 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.1%

CNP opened at $40.07 on Thursday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $28.57 and a 12 month high of $40.50. The business has a 50-day moving average of $38.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.15). CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.16% and a net margin of 10.42%.The company had revenue of $1.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank upped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.95.

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.