CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Sold by Pacer Advisors Inc.

Pacer Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 38.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,228 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 21,017 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,204,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,446,036,000 after acquiring an additional 27,799,744 shares in the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $164,350,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 46,645,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,480,060,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,169 shares in the last quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,702,000. Finally, Ariel Investments LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,281,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.38.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $38.46 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market cap of $25.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $36.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.71. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $39.31.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.29%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

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.