Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Purchases 1,400 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 17.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $283,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $499,962,000 after acquiring an additional 556,802 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,484,079 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $125,275,000 after acquiring an additional 53,655 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $116,398,000 after buying an additional 110,905 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 8.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,611,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,914,000 after buying an additional 200,693 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on CNP. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective 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. KeyCorp downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP opened at $32.54 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.55, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $29.79 and a 200 day moving average of $29.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $32.65.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.63%.

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.