Investment Management Corp of Ontario reduced its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 70.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,229 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 50,315 shares during the period. Investment Management Corp of Ontario's holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $625,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 566.5% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,744,742 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $51,330,000 after buying an additional 1,482,966 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $6,806,000. Cinctive Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $5,901,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 171.5% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 8,418 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 5,318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lavaca Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter worth $2,059,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
CenterPoint Energy Price Performance
Shares of NYSE CNP traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $31.66. The stock had a trading volume of 2,842,546 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,293,917. The company has a market capitalization of $20.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.96. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $33.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $30.46 and a 200-day moving average of $29.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11.
CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio is currently 55.63%.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several equities research analysts recently commented on CNP shares. Scotiabank increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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 note on Wednesday, October 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $30.58.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on CNP
About CenterPoint Energy
(
Free Report)
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.
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