CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Acquired by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 0.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 176,111 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 492 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $5,456,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CNP. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $1,091,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 105,822 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,024,000 after acquiring an additional 9,107 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 43.7% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 7,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $206,000 after acquiring an additional 2,197 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 56,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,611,000 after acquiring an additional 950 shares during the period. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $336,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CNP. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.73.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $26.03 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.33, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $31.57. The company’s fifty day moving average is $28.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.20.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. Analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

CenterPoint Energy 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.