CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Purchased by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 114.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 504,698 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 269,475 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned about 0.08% of CenterPoint Energy worth $14,848,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,754,579 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,386,168,000 after purchasing an additional 865,120 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $499,962,000 after purchasing an additional 556,802 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $302,070,000 after purchasing an additional 2,961,464 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $144,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,484,079 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $125,275,000 after purchasing an additional 53,655 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $29.00 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $29.91.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP traded down $0.17 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $29.31. 3,756,807 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,082,915. The firm has a market cap of $18.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.20, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a boost 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 2.87%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.69%.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.