NBC Securities Inc. Boosts Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

NBC Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 658,128.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 92,152 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 92,138 shares during the quarter. NBC Securities Inc.'s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,338,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,449,927 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,774,941,000 after purchasing an additional 334,631 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% during the fourth 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. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,446,036,000 after purchasing an additional 27,799,744 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,490,728 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $490,205,000 after acquiring an additional 406,832 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,880,015 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $186,573,000 after acquiring an additional 431,260 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CNP. Barclays raised CenterPoint Energy from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Scotiabank restated an "outperform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up from $35.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $36.04.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.04 during trading on Thursday, reaching $37.04. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,558,357 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,622,619. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The company has a market cap of $24.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.63. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $39.31. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.42.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last posted 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). The business had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.38%. CenterPoint Energy's payout ratio is 59.06%.

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.