CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP Shares Bought by Forsta AP Fonden

Forsta AP Fonden increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 123,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,200 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $4,534,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Motco increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 107.8% during the first quarter. Motco now owns 1,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CNP shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Mizuho set a $42.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, October 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $44.00 price objective on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.50.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $39.74 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.15, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $29.97 and a 52-week high of $40.50.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 11.37%.During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.31 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.70%.

Insider Activity at CenterPoint Energy

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total transaction of $240,746.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 65,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,546,354.91. The trade was a 8.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

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.