IFM Investors Pty Ltd Grows Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 226,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,139 shares during the quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $6,660,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $541,000 after acquiring an additional 388 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $557,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the period. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,000 after acquiring an additional 462 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP stock opened at $29.31 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The firm has a market cap of $18.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $31.57. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.94.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.87%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Bank of America initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.91.

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.