Ethos Financial Group LLC Acquires New Stake in 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 purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,105 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $257,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings 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 valued at $2,907,000 after purchasing an additional 6,377 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.8% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,913 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $721,000 after purchasing an additional 1,615 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.1% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 864,175 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,309,000 after purchasing an additional 26,153 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 32.6% in the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,314,131 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $73,427,000 after purchasing an additional 569,389 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.6% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 166,743 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $6,041,000 after purchasing an additional 8,914 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CNP. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $37.38.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of CNP stock traded up $0.0340 on Friday, hitting $38.0340. The stock had a trading volume of 5,591,020 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,254,176. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $26.32 and a twelve month high of $39.39. The firm has a market cap of $24.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.60, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.58. 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 has a fifty day moving average price of $37.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.38.

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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. CenterPoint Energy has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.740-1.760 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued 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 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.