Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Invests $255,000 in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 8,236 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Olistico Wealth LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the first quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the period. Finally, Tobam acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $27.93 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $27.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.67. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The company has a market capitalization of $17.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on CNP. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.36.

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.