47,981 Shares in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Purchased by Wexford Capital LP

Wexford Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 47,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,412,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 86.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 88,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,516,000 after buying an additional 40,878 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 20,359 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $580,000 after acquiring an additional 5,891 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 5.1% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 11,427 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $354,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares during the last quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 8.0% during the second quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 20,656 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $640,000 after purchasing an additional 1,529 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 12.0% during the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 11,438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $354,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CNP shares. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective 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. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.58.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE CNP opened at $31.99 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.33. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $33.00. 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 company has a market capitalization of $20.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.19, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.96.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.