Insider Selling: CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Director Sells $166,811.40 in Stock

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the sale, the director now owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE CNP opened at $29.45 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $28.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The stock has a market cap of $18.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.42 and a 12 month high of $31.43.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.03% and a return on equity of 10.57%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,239,922 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $221,242,000 after purchasing an additional 442,718 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $229,436,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578,948 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,952,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $170,077,000 after acquiring an additional 46,232 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,402,677 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $154,354,000 after acquiring an additional 54,476 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,640 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CNP shares. Scotiabank lowered their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price target (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.18.

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.