CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Position Trimmed by Cadence Bank

Cadence Bank reduced its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 4.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,931 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. Cadence Bank’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $379,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 38,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,243,000 after purchasing an additional 6,073 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.0% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 143,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,234,000 after buying an additional 2,789 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,930,000 after acquiring an additional 56,037 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 53.3% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 11,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $364,000 after acquiring an additional 3,983 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $42.00 target price on the stock. Guggenheim cut CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. 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 research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.46.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $37.14 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $37.70. The stock has a market cap of $24.24 billion, a PE ratio of 23.36, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a fifty day moving average of $35.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.35%.

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.