Sanctuary Advisors LLC Purchases 6,073 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 18.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 38,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,073 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 18.7% during the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 78,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,442,000 after purchasing an additional 12,422 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth $2,564,000. Swiss National Bank grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at $908,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 13.4% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,052,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,630,000 after purchasing an additional 124,529 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $32.54 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.48. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $33.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The company has a market cap of $21.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.55, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 58.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the subject of a number of research reports. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.27.

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.