Cerity Partners LLC Has $9.12 Million Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 29.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 309,964 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 70,688 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC's holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $9,119,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $7,287,000 after acquiring an additional 152,878 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 78,838 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,442,000 after purchasing an additional 12,422 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,052,237 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $32,630,000 after purchasing an additional 124,529 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $55,863,000 after purchasing an additional 24,400 shares during the period. Finally, ING Groep NV bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,564,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CNP shares. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE CNP opened at $32.54 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $32.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $21.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.92. The stock's 50-day moving average is $29.79 and its 200-day moving average is $29.18.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The firm 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 period last year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.58%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.