First Horizon Advisors Inc. Purchases 375 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 51.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 375 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $33,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 459.0% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,554 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 1,276 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $32.49 on Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $32.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.52, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.18. 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 (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on CNP shares. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. 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 research report on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.00.

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.