Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 9,107 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 9.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 105,822 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,107 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,024,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after buying an additional 120,085 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,209,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,559,000 after buying an additional 256,820 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 37.5% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,540,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,361,000 after buying an additional 420,010 shares during the last quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 32.5% during the fourth quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA now owns 416,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,912,000 after buying an additional 102,271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 202.0% during the third quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 27,903 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $749,000 after buying an additional 18,664 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $28.53 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.96. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.42 and a fifty-two week high of $31.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.32. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.55% and a return on equity of 10.44%. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Guggenheim reduced 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 report on Wednesday, February 21st. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 target price (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.30.

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.