CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Short Interest Update

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 18,200,000 shares, a growth of 9.2% from the November 15th total of 16,670,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,290,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.4 days.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,287,000 after acquiring an additional 152,878 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 18.7% during the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 78,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,442,000 after buying an additional 12,422 shares in the last quarter. ING Groep NV purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at $2,564,000. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,863,000 after buying an additional 24,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DRW Securities LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at $908,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP stock remained flat at $32.07 on Tuesday. The company had a trading volume of 1,097,333 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,246,984. The company has a fifty day moving average of $30.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.43. CenterPoint Energy has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $33.00. The company has a market cap of $20.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.24, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96. 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 released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.63%.

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.