CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Purchased by LPL Financial LLC

LPL Financial LLC raised its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 157,052 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,134 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $4,983,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $442,231,000 after acquiring an additional 370,790 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,116,586 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,619,000 after purchasing an additional 160,154 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,431.1% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,408,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $108,153,000 after purchasing an additional 3,185,932 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $97,348,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on CNP shares. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. Barclays increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.46.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of CNP opened at $35.62 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $34.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $37.70.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. Analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

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.