Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lessened its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 91,130 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 15,186 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $2,681,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1,158.2% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 2,189 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 20,789 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $612,000 after buying an additional 602 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 29.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 309,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,119,000 after buying an additional 70,688 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 32,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $949,000 after buying an additional 4,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,398,000 after buying an additional 110,905 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $32.66 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.20. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $32.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The company has a market capitalization of $21.29 billion, a PE ratio of 21.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS 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. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost 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 2.57%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 55.63%.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.