Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Makes New Investment in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Key Points

• Ashton Thomas Securities LLC has acquired 8,069 new shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. during the 1st quarter, valuing the investment at approximately $292,000.
• CenterPoint Energy reported $0.29 EPS for the last quarter, missing analysts' expectations, and set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.740-1.760 EPS.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.22, with an annualized amount of $0.88 and a yield of 2.3%, payable on September 11th.

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 8,069 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $292,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CNP. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $164,350,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $92,025,000. GQG Partners LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $78,632,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 50.2% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,118,233 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $185,434,000 after purchasing an additional 1,709,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 58.4% during the 1st quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,385,632 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $158,891,000 after purchasing an additional 1,616,181 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CNP shares. Morgan Stanley set a $38.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Scotiabank raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Mizuho set a $39.00 price objective on CenterPoint Energy and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.71.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.8%

CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.32 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $37.78. The stock had a trading volume of 5,087,073 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,235,525. The company has a market cap of $24.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.42, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The business's 50 day moving average price is $37.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.77. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $26.32 and a 52 week high of $39.39.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $1.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.16% and a net margin of 10.42%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. CenterPoint Energy has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.740-1.760 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. CenterPoint Energy's payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

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.