HighTower Advisors LLC Has $2.30 Million Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 16.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 78,294 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 15,776 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,303,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 459.0% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,554 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 1,276 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target on the stock. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $31.95 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.00. The company has a market capitalization of $20.82 billion, a PE ratio of 21.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $30.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 55.63%.

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.