Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Buys Shares of 1,600 CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $45,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CNP. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 147,136 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,951,000 after acquiring an additional 8,667 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 0.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,266,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $87,708,000 after buying an additional 29,950 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $381,000. DNB Asset Management AS increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 136,913 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,912,000 after buying an additional 1,613 shares during the period. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $204,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on CNP shares. Barclays increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 24th. KeyCorp increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.00.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of CNP stock opened at $29.68 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.42 and a fifty-two week high of $31.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.