Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Reduces Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,403 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 627 shares during the period. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $382,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,287,000 after purchasing an additional 152,878 shares during the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter worth $1,625,000. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 305,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,735,000 after acquiring an additional 60,223 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 837.7% during the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 210,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,985,000 after acquiring an additional 187,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at about $1,109,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE CNP opened at $27.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $17.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.40, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.20. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.66.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 56.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.40.

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.