Leeward Investments LLC MA Purchases 60,370 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Leeward Investments LLC MA increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 28.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 269,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 60,370 shares during the quarter. Leeward Investments LLC MA’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $8,551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,104,000 after purchasing an additional 42,578 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at about $908,000. ING Groep NV purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter worth about $2,564,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares during the period. Finally, Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $265,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.65.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.8 %

CNP stock opened at $34.32 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.35. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $34.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.37 billion, a PE ratio of 21.59, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.35%.

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.