Renaissance Technologies LLC Has $6.52 Million Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Renaissance Technologies LLC lowered its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP – Get Rating) by 68.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 231,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 506,800 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $6,518,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $440,000. Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 59.0% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 14,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $452,000 after purchasing an additional 5,475 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 28.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,585,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,208,000 after purchasing an additional 572,884 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 32,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $988,000 after purchasing an additional 2,642 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 59.3% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 738,270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $22,615,000 after buying an additional 274,696 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on CNP shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy to $35.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. Guggenheim downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.78.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $27.88 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.53, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50-day moving average of $29.47 and a 200-day moving average of $29.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.75. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.03 and a fifty-two week high of $33.50.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 17th. The utilities provider reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.29 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $2.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.29 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.21% and a return on equity of 9.88%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 16th were issued a $0.19 dividend. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 15th. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.73%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.80%.

About CenterPoint Energy

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CenterPoint Energy, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the business of power generation and distribution. It operates through the following segments: CenterPoint Energy, Houston Electric, and CERC. The CenterPoint Energy segment consists of electric transmission and distribution services in the Texas gulf coast area in the ERCOT region and electric transmission and distribution services primarily to southwestern Indiana and includes power generation and wholesale power operations in the MISO region.