Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. Sells 4,681 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 180,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,681 shares during the quarter. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $5,722,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 375 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 11,907 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $378,000 after buying an additional 416 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 13,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $441,000 after buying an additional 432 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 53.0% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $604,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.77.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 2.6 %

NYSE:CNP opened at $35.52 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $35.64. The company has a market cap of $23.18 billion, a PE ratio of 22.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.48%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 55.35%.

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.