Inspire Investing LLC Has $2.18 Million Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Inspire Investing LLC reduced its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 17.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 70,372 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 15,249 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,180,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $94,750,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $302,070,000 after buying an additional 2,961,464 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $141,666,000 after buying an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $63,758,000. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578,948 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.36.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP opened at $28.21 on Thursday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $31.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92. 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 company has a fifty day moving average price of $27.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.68.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 last year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

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.