Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Acquires 25,039 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 571,897 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,039 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $18,146,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.4 %

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $35.67 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $36.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on CNP shares. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Guggenheim cut CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI raised CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.77.

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.