Truist Financial Corp Has $2.48 Million Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 32.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 79,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,686 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,475,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tobam bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CNP shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.55.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $29.49 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $31.57. The company has a market cap of $18.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.68 and a 200-day moving average of $28.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast 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, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.15%.

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.