Cigna Investments Inc. New Purchases New Shares in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Cigna Investments Inc. New purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,104,000 after buying an additional 42,578 shares during the period. ING Groep NV purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth $2,564,000. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter worth $908,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 24,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $265,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays boosted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.46.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of CNP stock opened at $32.41 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $33.12. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $32.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.99. The stock has a market cap of $21.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.46, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 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.