Sei Investments Co. Acquires 156,954 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 53.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 447,978 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 156,954 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $13,878,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after buying an additional 388 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $557,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the period. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP opened at $29.10 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The company has a market cap of $18.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.69. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $31.57.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The company 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 period last year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. Research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, KeyCorp lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.