First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 447,080 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 94.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 922,229 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 447,080 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.14% of CenterPoint Energy worth $29,262,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CNP shares. Evercore ISI raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday. Argus upgraded CenterPoint Energy to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $40.00 price target (up previously from $35.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $35.79.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP traded up $0.01 on Tuesday, hitting $38.25. The stock had a trading volume of 3,585,622 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,582,944. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $39.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $35.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.99. The company has a market capitalization of $24.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.55 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.06%.

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.