Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 838,022 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 9,344 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.13% of CenterPoint Energy worth $26,590,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $442,231,000 after buying an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $147,387,000 after buying an additional 247,944 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $116,398,000 after acquiring an additional 110,905 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,177,364 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $93,478,000 after acquiring an additional 65,139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CNP. Guggenheim cut CenterPoint Energy from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $34.50 price objective for the company. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of 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 analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.5 %

CNP stock traded down $0.15 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $34.07. 1,291,687 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,201,188. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $22.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.95. The firm's 50 day moving average is $32.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.46. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $34.49.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.35%.

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.