V Square Quantitative Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 11.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,940 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,290 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $645,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CNP. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter worth about $1,039,000. Teilinger Capital Ltd. bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,478,000. Seven Grand Managers LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $5,884,000. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 15.0% during the third quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC now owns 83,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,469,000 after buying an additional 10,970 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 43.8% in the third quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 12,680 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 3,862 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.2 %

CNP stock opened at $30.11 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.79%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.15%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.91.

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.