National Bank of Canada FI Raises Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 135.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 586,529 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 336,984 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned 0.09% of CenterPoint Energy worth $17,255,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the second quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $609,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,780,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $604,000 after buying an additional 484 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on CNP shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. 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 raised their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $30.58.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $31.39. 4,203,097 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,278,980. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.35. The company has a market capitalization of $20.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 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 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 released 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 net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. 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 firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. 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 dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.63%.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.