State of Alaska Department of Revenue Trims Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue lessened its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 83,406 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 800 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,452,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $541,000 after acquiring an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $557,000 after purchasing an additional 434 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% in the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the period. Finally, FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the first quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $29.52 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $31.57. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $28.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 last year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.15%.

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.