ING Groep NV Has $702,000 Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

ING Groep NV lessened its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 74.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,139 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 65,023 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV's holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 370,790 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in 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 buying an additional 247,944 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% in 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 buying an additional 110,905 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in 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 worth $93,478,000 after buying an additional 65,139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP traded up $0.64 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $34.38. 5,122,591 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,306,662. 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 stock's 50 day simple moving average is $32.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.50. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $34.49. The company has a market cap of $22.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.62, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.95.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.46 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.