Seven Grand Managers LLC Purchases New Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Seven Grand Managers LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 200,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,884,000. CenterPoint Energy accounts for about 1.3% of Seven Grand Managers LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,754,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,386,168,000 after acquiring an additional 865,120 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $499,962,000 after purchasing an additional 556,802 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $302,070,000 after purchasing an additional 2,961,464 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,484,079 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $125,275,000 after purchasing an additional 53,655 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.5 %

CNP stock opened at $30.11 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $27.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.86. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $31.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.15%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.91.

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.