Camden National Bank Takes $206,000 Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Camden National Bank acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 6,487 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,817,000. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $207,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $97,348,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 252,697 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,018,000 after acquiring an additional 3,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 189,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,006,000 after purchasing an additional 6,014 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on CNP shares. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped 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. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $34.26 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $34.85. The company has a market cap of $22.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $32.72 and a 200-day moving average of $30.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 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.