CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Sold by Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC decreased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 410,626 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 14,481 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC owned approximately 0.06% of CenterPoint Energy worth $12,931,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $147,387,000 after purchasing an additional 247,944 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $116,398,000 after purchasing an additional 110,905 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,177,364 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $93,478,000 after purchasing an additional 65,139 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $55,863,000 after purchasing an additional 24,400 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CNP shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $34.50 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price 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. Finally, Guggenheim lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $31.46.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.8 %

CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.59 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $34.32. The stock had a trading volume of 6,019,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,177,416. The company has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.73, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The business's 50 day moving average price is $32.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.28. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $34.39.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued 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 yield of 2.56%. CenterPoint Energy's payout ratio is currently 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.