CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Acquired by Truist Financial Corp

Truist Financial Corp increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 32.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 79,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,686 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,475,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,754,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,386,168,000 after buying an additional 865,120 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $499,962,000 after purchasing an additional 556,802 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $302,070,000 after purchasing an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $144,570,000 after buying an additional 1,484,079 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.55.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $29.49 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.87 billion, a PE ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $31.57. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $27.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.81.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 59.15%.

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.