BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Decreases Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp decreased its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 12.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 106,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 14,535 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Railway Pension Investments Ltd purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth $63,758,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $144,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,484,079 shares during the period. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth about $42,548,000. Merewether Investment Management LP bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,188,000. Finally, Teilinger Capital Ltd. purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,478,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $32.14 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $30.21 and a 200 day moving average of $29.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The company has a market capitalization of $20.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.96. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $33.00.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.61%. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock 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 note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.58.

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.