Simplicity Solutions LLC Purchases 1,998 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Simplicity Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 12.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,498 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,998 shares during the quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 73,506,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,252,230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,900 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,279,592 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,019,687,000 after purchasing an additional 3,035,409 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,971,112 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $381,258,000 after purchasing an additional 195,919 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 5.7% in the 3rd 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 period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,709,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $231,220,000 after purchasing an additional 28,834 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on CNP. Guggenheim cut their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Barclays raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Evercore ISI downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price target (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.30.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $27.95 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $17.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.42 and a 1-year high of $31.43. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $27.89 and its 200 day moving average is $27.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32. The company had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.44% and a net margin of 10.55%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.