Allworth Financial LP Purchases 699 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 17.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,746 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 699 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $154,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,104,000 after acquiring an additional 42,578 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at $908,000. ING Groep NV purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,564,000. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares during the period. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $265,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.8 %

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $34.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.31. The company has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a PE ratio of 21.59, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.95. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $34.39.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 55.35%.

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.