Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Has $6.77 Million Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lessened its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 6.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 230,094 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 17,103 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $6,769,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CNP. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted 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 worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 459.0% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,554 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 1,276 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a "market perform" rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Friday, hitting $31.94. The stock had a trading volume of 4,760,087 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,268,520. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The company has a market capitalization of $20.82 billion, a PE ratio of 21.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 previous year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy's payout ratio is presently 55.63%.

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.