Vanguard Group Inc. Raises Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 79,389,191 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 120,829 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 12.18% of CenterPoint Energy worth $2,519,019,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in 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 last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 11,907 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $378,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 13,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $441,000 after purchasing an additional 432 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 53.0% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1.2% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 40,054 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,178,000 after buying an additional 489 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE CNP opened at $35.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $22.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $36.19. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $33.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy 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.