CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP Shares Bought by Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 5.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,225,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 60,785 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $45,022,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Jump Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 130.3% in the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 22,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $832,000 after purchasing an additional 13,000 shares during the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter worth $257,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth $937,000. Arcus Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at $704,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 57.3% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 247,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,949,000 after acquiring an additional 89,958 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $39.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.79 billion, a PE ratio of 25.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $29.91 and a one year high of $40.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $38.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.51.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 55.70%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total value of $240,746.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 65,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,546,354.91. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on CNP shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.50.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.