Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 179,236 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. reduced its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 35.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 325,462 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 179,236 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.'s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $10,327,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 11.6% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 685,669 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $21,242,000 after acquiring an additional 71,469 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,611,909 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $80,914,000 after purchasing an additional 200,693 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 15.3% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 11,028 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 1,462 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 36.6% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 178,104 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $5,518,000 after buying an additional 47,686 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 13.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 45,463 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,408,000 after buying an additional 5,526 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on CNP. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, 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 on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP opened at $32.60 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $33.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $31.73 and a 200-day moving average of $29.62. The stock has a market cap of $21.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.59, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.95.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last released 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 net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors 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 represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio is 55.63%.

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.