Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Acquires New Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 7,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 11,907 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $378,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 13,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $441,000 after purchasing an additional 432 shares in the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $309,000 after acquiring an additional 461 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 53.0% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.2% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 40,054 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,178,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $42.00 price target for the company. Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.46.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $36.19 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 company has a market cap of $23.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.76, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $37.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $34.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.32.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during 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%. Sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

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.