CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Position Increased by Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 106,316 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,523 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tobam purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of CNP stock opened at $27.59 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.65. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.20. The company has a market capitalization of $17.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.43, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price 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. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.36.

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.