Paloma Partners Management Co Invests $205,000 in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 7,182 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Energy Income Partners LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 32.8% during the first quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 982,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,005,000 after purchasing an additional 242,612 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $302,070,000 after acquiring an additional 2,961,464 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter worth about $4,373,000. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% in the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 119,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,390,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 86.4% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,413,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,282,000 after acquiring an additional 655,327 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $28.90. 2,304,295 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,719,174. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The company has a market cap of $18.49 billion, a PE ratio of 20.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at CenterPoint Energy

In related news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp lowered their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.60.

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.