Legacy Advisors LLC Takes Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Legacy Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 8,327 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $302,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Curat Global LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 58.9% during the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,079 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They set a "buy" rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Scotiabank restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $35.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Argus raised shares of CenterPoint Energy to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $36.04.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Friday, hitting $36.59. 664,635 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,237,699. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $39.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $23.89 billion, a PE ratio of 24.59, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.59. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $37.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.88.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.80% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The company had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.06%.

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.