Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Has $228,000 Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lessened its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 25.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,763 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,701 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at about $265,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% in the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 19,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $549,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 9.1% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 675,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,894,000 after buying an additional 56,221 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 21.7% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 764,266 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $21,774,000 after buying an additional 136,431 shares during the period. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 5.4% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 16,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $461,000 after buying an additional 833 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on CNP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE:CNP opened at $29.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.08. The company has a market cap of $19.53 billion, a PE ratio of 19.85, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.98%.

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.