Entropy Technologies LP Purchases Shares of 66,943 CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 66,943 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,969,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,287,000 after acquiring an additional 152,878 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 86.4% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,413,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,282,000 after purchasing an additional 655,327 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 675,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,894,000 after purchasing an additional 56,221 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 487.8% during the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 40,024 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,140,000 after buying an additional 33,215 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position 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 during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CNP. 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 for the company. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 1.3 %

CNP stock opened at $30.46 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.92. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.06.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.98%.

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.