Farther Finance Advisors LLC Trims Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,477 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,175 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $396,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Americana Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 89.5% in the third quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 12,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 6,100 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,780,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 79.1% in the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 106,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,119,000 after acquiring an additional 46,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 33.5% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 41,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,199,000 after acquiring an additional 10,346 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on CNP shares. Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target on the stock. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE CNP opened at $29.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $19.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $28.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.03. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 52.98%.

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.