Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 7.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 847,366 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 56,037 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.13% of CenterPoint Energy worth $24,930,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% in the third quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,780,000 after acquiring an additional 472 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $604,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1.2% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 40,054 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,178,000 after buying an additional 489 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE CNP traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $32.37. 2,253,149 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,299,737. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.00. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $31.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.53.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy's payout ratio is currently 58.28%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CNP shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $29.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $31.27.

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.