Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP – Free Report) by 14.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,839 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,721,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ING Groep NV acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,564,000. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $908,000. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $705,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,930,000 after acquiring an additional 56,037 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.46.
CenterPoint Energy Price Performance
CNP opened at $32.55 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.21 billion, a PE ratio of 21.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.95.
CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 55.63%.
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.
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