CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Acquired by Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC

Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 46.6% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,484,079 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $144,570,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 13,280 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth $94,750,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the 4th quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 13,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $384,000 after acquiring an additional 5,053 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 105,256 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,007,000 after acquiring an additional 14,761 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 433,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,372,000 after acquiring an additional 115,029 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE CNP opened at $28.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company has a market cap of $18.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $27.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.68. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $31.57.

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

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

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.