AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 9,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $305,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CNP. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Guggenheim cut CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. 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, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $36.26 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $36.40. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $33.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted 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. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. On average, analysts anticipate 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.