Hennessy Advisors Inc. Has $14.07 Million Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 443,428 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 12,700 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of CenterPoint Energy worth $14,070,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CNP. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $276,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,930 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,285,000 after acquiring an additional 3,034 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in 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 increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 8.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,611,909 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $80,914,000 after acquiring an additional 200,693 shares during the period. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 15.3% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 11,028 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $342,000 after acquiring an additional 1,462 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. 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 report on Wednesday, October 16th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $34.50 price target on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE CNP traded down $0.21 on Friday, hitting $32.60. 5,319,150 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,127,013. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $31.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.62. The company has a market cap of $21.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.95. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $33.00.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. 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.