National Pension Service Has $26.40 Million Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

National Pension Service raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 897,337 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,135 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $26,400,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on CNP shares. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $29.37 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $28.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.03. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $19.14 billion, a PE ratio of 19.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. Analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.86%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 52.98%.

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.