CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Holdings Cut by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 10.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 472,364 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 52,492 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $13,897,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,287,000 after purchasing an additional 152,878 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at $1,625,000. Duality Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 837.7% during the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 210,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,985,000 after purchasing an additional 187,662 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at $1,109,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 86.4% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,413,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,282,000 after purchasing an additional 655,327 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE CNP opened at $28.58 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s fifty day moving average is $28.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.00. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.57.

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, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.