CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Short Interest Update

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 18,200,000 shares, a growth of 9.2% from the November 15th total of 16,670,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,290,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased 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 valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on CNP. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP stock traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $32.08. 342,625 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,243,580. The company has a market cap of $20.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $33.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $30.67 and its 200 day moving average is $29.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 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.