AA Financial Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

AA Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,024 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after purchasing an additional 120,085 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 305,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,735,000 after acquiring an additional 60,223 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 433,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,372,000 after acquiring an additional 115,029 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,209,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,559,000 after acquiring an additional 256,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 209,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,972,000 after acquiring an additional 45,389 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total value of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. KeyCorp raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.00.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 1.3 %

CNP stock traded down $0.40 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $29.23. 3,535,082 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,499,153. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.70 billion, a PE ratio of 20.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.42 and a 1-year high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. The company had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.74%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 56.34%.

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.