Pitcairn Co. Acquires 602 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Pitcairn Co. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,789 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 602 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $612,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $609,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,780,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the period. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $604,000 after buying an additional 484 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $32.49 on Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $32.61. 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 company has a market capitalization of $21.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.18.

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. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. 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.