Hennessy Advisors Inc. Buys 12,700 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 443,428 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 12,700 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $14,070,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. ING Groep NV acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,564,000. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at about $908,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 24,400 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 13.4% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,052,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,630,000 after buying an additional 124,529 shares during the period. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter worth about $705,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 2.9 %

CNP stock opened at $32.80 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $31.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.95. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $33.00.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.68%. This is an increase 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 55.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.27.

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.