Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Sells 119,984 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lessened its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 23.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 398,301 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 119,984 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned about 0.06% of CenterPoint Energy worth $12,638,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $24,930,000 after purchasing an additional 56,037 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 12,521 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160 shares during the period. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 141,306 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $4,484,000 after purchasing an additional 8,544 shares during the period. Finally, Eastern Bank raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 33.4% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 3,992 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $127,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CNP traded up $0.61 on Thursday, hitting $37.18. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,980,608 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,582,486. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $36.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $39.31. The company has a market capitalization of $24.27 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.63.

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

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Scotiabank reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $40.00 target price (up from $35.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $35.79.

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.