Norges Bank Takes $158.23 Million Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 4,986,839 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $158,232,000. Norges Bank owned approximately 0.77% of CenterPoint Energy at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $305,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 31.1% in the fourth quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 36,726 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,165,000 after acquiring an additional 8,708 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 412,786 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,098,000 after acquiring an additional 11,171 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,974,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,056,393 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,424,000 after purchasing an additional 107,162 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $36.25 on Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $36.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $23.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.82.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

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.