CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Purchased by Moors & Cabot Inc.

Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 53,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 743 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $1,684,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,104,000 after acquiring an additional 42,578 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at about $908,000. ING Groep NV acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at about $2,564,000. Swiss National Bank increased 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 acquiring an additional 24,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at about $265,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $34.59 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.04. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $35.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. Equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 55.35%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered 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 note on Friday, November 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.77.

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.