Blue Trust Inc. Acquires 1,350 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 25.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 6,559 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,350 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $193,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 566.5% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,744,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,482,966 shares during the period. Teilinger Capital Ltd. bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,478,000. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 98.1% in the third quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,536,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,208,000 after buying an additional 760,956 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,391.8% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 536,379 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $157,800,000 after acquiring an additional 500,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $442,231,000 after acquiring an additional 370,790 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE CNP opened at $32.15 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $33.12. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $32.05 and a 200-day moving average of $29.87. The company has a market cap of $20.96 billion, a PE ratio of 21.29, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.74%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CNP. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Guggenheim downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.46.

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.