Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Decreases Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD cut its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 40.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,365,599 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 3,654,302 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 0.82% of CenterPoint Energy worth $170,252,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,449,927 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,774,941,000 after purchasing an additional 334,631 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,446,036,000 after purchasing an additional 27,799,744 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,490,728 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $490,205,000 after purchasing an additional 406,832 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth $158,232,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,116,586 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $130,619,000 after buying an additional 160,154 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CNP. Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $35.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $30.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Argus upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $35.79.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE:CNP traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $38.73. The company had a trading volume of 1,048,248 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,559,064. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $39.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.35, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $35.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.13.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. CenterPoint Energy's payout ratio is 59.06%.

CenterPoint Energy 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.