Mather Group LLC. Sells 1,689 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Mather Group LLC. lessened its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 16.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,689 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $246,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% in 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 during the period. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,625,000. Duality Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 837.7% in 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 during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,109,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 86.4% in 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on CNP. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank lowered their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.55.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.3 %

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $29.57 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week 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 stock has a market capitalization of $18.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.37, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.82.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company 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 2.84%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 49.69%.

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.