Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Increases Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 56,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 950 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,611,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 5.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,239,922 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $221,242,000 after buying an additional 442,718 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1.8% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,906,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $158,597,000 after buying an additional 105,404 shares in the last quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 9.8% during the third quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 3,623,324 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $97,286,000 after buying an additional 324,078 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 175.3% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 3,618,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $97,162,000 after buying an additional 2,304,183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,528,741 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $94,747,000 after buying an additional 63,804 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price objective (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.18.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $29.07 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.42 and a 52 week high of $31.43.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.55% and a return on equity of 10.44%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.