State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Grows Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 18.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 219,892 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 33,516 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D's holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $6,469,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% during the third quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $557,000 after purchasing an additional 434 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $609,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,780,000 after acquiring an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 176,111 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,456,000 after purchasing an additional 492 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $30.08. 1,996,119 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,359,002. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $31.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.91, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.92. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $29.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm 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 $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.98%.

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.