Cetera Investment Advisers Buys 9,585 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 10.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 101,766 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 9,585 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers' holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,687,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.6% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 80,229 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,907,000 after purchasing an additional 6,377 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 8.8% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,913 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $721,000 after buying an additional 1,615 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.1% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 864,175 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $31,309,000 after buying an additional 26,153 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 32.6% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,314,131 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $73,427,000 after buying an additional 569,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 166,743 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $6,041,000 after acquiring an additional 8,914 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Mizuho set a $39.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.38.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $38.70. The company had a trading volume of 1,173,770 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,316,796. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $39.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The company's 50-day moving average price is $36.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.98. The firm has a market cap of $25.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.07, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.58.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.20 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.42% and a return on equity of 9.16%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. CenterPoint Energy's payout ratio is 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.