Swiss National Bank Has $58.42 Million Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Swiss National Bank trimmed its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,841,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 57,700 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.28% of CenterPoint Energy worth $58,418,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CNP. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the period. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on CNP shares. Barclays lifted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.77.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $35.52 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.15. The company has a market capitalization of $23.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $35.64.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.35%.

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.