Ethos Financial Group LLC Acquires Shares of 7,105 CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Key Points

• Ethos Financial Group LLC has acquired 7,105 shares of CenterPoint Energy, valued at approximately $257,000, reflecting increased interest from institutional investors in the utilities provider.
• Several hedge funds, including Raymond James Financial Inc. and American Century Companies Inc., have significantly raised their stakes in CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter of the year.
• Analysts have a mixed outlook on CenterPoint Energy, with an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $37.38, as well as a recent earnings miss reported at $0.29 EPS against an expectation of $0.44 EPS.

Ethos Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,105 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $257,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $164,350,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $92,025,000. GQG Partners LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $78,632,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 46,645,434 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,480,060,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,169 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 50.2% in 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 period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP stock traded up $0.0340 during trading on Friday, hitting $38.0340. 5,607,602 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,139,331. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $26.32 and a one year high of $39.39. The stock has a market cap of $24.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

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

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Mizuho set a $39.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.38.

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.