BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Has $3.76 Million Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 60.9% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 121,246 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 45,883 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,756,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 13.4% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,052,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,630,000 after purchasing an additional 124,529 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.5% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 108,405 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,358,000 after buying an additional 36,868 shares in the last quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $474,000 after acquiring an additional 2,546 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 177,905 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,511,000 after acquiring an additional 4,488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 49.9% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 35,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after acquiring an additional 11,765 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CNP. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. 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. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.55.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.6 %

CNP stock opened at $29.10 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $27.49 and its 200-day moving average is $28.69. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.62 billion, a PE ratio of 20.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.34%.

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.