Freestone Grove Partners LP Buys Shares of 24,679 CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 24,679 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $783,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price target (up from $35.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Friday, April 25th. Guggenheim cut CenterPoint Energy from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Barclays raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $35.79.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock traded up $0.14 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.06. 3,933,681 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,558,754. The firm's 50-day moving average is $36.28 and its 200 day moving average is $33.33. The company has a market capitalization of $25.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.57, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.63. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $39.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The company had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.06%.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.