Fulton Bank N.A. Has $424,000 Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 5.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,356 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 676 shares during the quarter. Fulton Bank N.A.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $424,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $442,231,000 after buying an additional 370,790 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $147,387,000 after buying an additional 247,944 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $144,570,000 after buying an additional 1,484,079 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $125,275,000 after buying an additional 53,655 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $116,398,000 after purchasing an additional 110,905 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $31.22 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $33.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $31.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS 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 company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. On average, equities 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 58.28%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two 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.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.27.

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.