Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Purchases 6,970 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 283,801 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 6,970 shares during the quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina's holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $9,005,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 40,054 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,178,000 after acquiring an additional 489 shares in the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 82.2% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 17,976 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $529,000 after purchasing an additional 8,110 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 38,917 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,243,000 after buying an additional 6,073 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 143,906 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $4,234,000 after buying an additional 2,789 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Argus raised shares of CenterPoint Energy to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $34.46.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.36 during trading on Friday, reaching $37.14. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,269,205 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,556,188. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The business's 50-day moving average price is $35.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.63. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $37.70. The firm has a market cap of $24.24 billion, a PE ratio of 23.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.37%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio is presently 55.35%.

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.