M&T Bank Corp Increases Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 40,054 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,178,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $147,387,000 after buying an additional 247,944 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 8.4% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 195,878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,763,000 after acquiring an additional 15,211 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,182,000. Zimmer Partners LP grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 98.1% in the third quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,536,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,208,000 after purchasing an additional 760,956 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 135.0% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 586,529 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,255,000 after purchasing an additional 336,984 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CNP shares. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective for the company. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $31.94 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $30.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.41. The company has a market capitalization of $20.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $33.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 55.63%.

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.