Neo Ivy Capital Management Purchases Shares of 17,010 CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Key Points

• Neo Ivy Capital Management has acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy, purchasing 17,010 shares valued at approximately $616,000.
• CenterPoint Energy reported missed EPS targets for its latest quarter, posting $0.29 EPS compared to the consensus estimate of $0.44.
• A quarterly dividend of $0.22 will be paid to shareholders on September 11th, representing an annualized yield of 2.29%.

Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 17,010 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $616,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Curat Global LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 201.5% during the first quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 691 shares during the period. CoreCap Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 58.9% during the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,079 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 472.8% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,220 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 1,007 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company's stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CNP traded up $0.28 on Wednesday, hitting $38.57. The company had a trading volume of 1,405,548 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,341,940. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $39.31. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $25.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.97, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $36.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.69.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last released 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 business had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CNP shares. Scotiabank increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Argus raised shares of CenterPoint Energy to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $37.38.

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.