Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 157,829 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,040 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $5,008,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CNP. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 566.5% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,744,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,482,966 shares during the last quarter. Teilinger Capital Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,478,000. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 98.1% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,391.8% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 536,379 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,800,000 after buying an additional 500,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $442,231,000 after acquiring an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on CNP. Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target for the company. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.38.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.2 %

CNP opened at $32.37 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.70. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $33.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 previous year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.63%.

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.