Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC Reduces Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC lowered its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 6,839 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 364 shares during the quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $217,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 3rd 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. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 53.0% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 482 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 3rd 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. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 40,054 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,178,000 after buying an additional 489 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on CNP. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays upped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price for the company. Finally, Guggenheim cut CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $34.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.95. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $34.49. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $32.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.59.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.35%.

CenterPoint Energy 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.