Barry T. Smitherman Sells 5,670 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Stock

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

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $29.45 on Friday. 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. 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 50 day moving average of $28.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.07. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.42 and a twelve month high of $31.43.

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

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CNP shares. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 target price (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. StockNews.com upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Guggenheim decreased 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. Scotiabank decreased 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. Finally, Barclays boosted 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. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.18.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings 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 valued at $221,242,000 after purchasing an additional 442,718 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578,948 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,952,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,077,000 after acquiring an additional 46,232 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its position in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $141,666,000 after acquiring an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.