Eastern Bank Makes New $88,000 Investment in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Eastern Bank acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $88,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of CNP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,287,000 after purchasing an additional 152,878 shares during the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,625,000. Duality Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 837.7% during the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 210,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,985,000 after purchasing an additional 187,662 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,109,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 86.4% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,413,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,282,000 after buying an additional 655,327 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $29.31 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $28.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.94. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $31.57. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $18.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.15%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on CNP shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.91.

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.