Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Buys 200,693 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,611,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 200,693 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $80,914,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 2,072,438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $64,204,000 after purchasing an additional 68,753 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 11.6% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 685,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $21,242,000 after purchasing an additional 71,469 shares during the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 33.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 10,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $316,000 after purchasing an additional 2,538 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 80.8% during the 2nd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,629 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $255,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $28.63 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.57. 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’s 50 day moving average price is $27.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.69.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 company earned $0.28 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.79%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.34%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.55.

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.