Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Invests $223,000 in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 7,015 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 80,577 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,557,000 after acquiring an additional 2,283 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $47,104,000 after buying an additional 42,578 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $908,000. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $265,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 57.1% during the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 34,577 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 12,563 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. Guggenheim lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. 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. Finally, Evercore ISI raised CenterPoint Energy from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $33.77.

Remove Ads

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $35.71. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,210,494 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,201,529. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company's 50-day moving average is $33.49 and its 200-day moving average is $31.48. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $36.19. The firm has a market cap of $23.31 billion, a PE ratio of 22.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last posted its 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. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.46 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

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.