Everence Capital Management Inc. Sells 9,610 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Everence Capital Management Inc. reduced its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 49.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 9,610 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $314,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,484,079 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 566.5% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,744,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,482,966 shares during the period. Merewether Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,188,000. Teilinger Capital Ltd. acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth $26,478,000. Finally, Zimmer Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 98.1% during the third quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,536,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,208,000 after buying an additional 760,956 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CNP shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $31.04 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.23 billion, a PE ratio of 20.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.95. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $33.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.55.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate 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, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 58.28%.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.