Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Grows Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 5.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 166,743 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 8,914 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $6,041,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CNP. Curat Global LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares during the period. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 201.5% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 691 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CNP. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays upgraded CenterPoint Energy from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Argus upgraded CenterPoint Energy to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $36.04.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $36.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.93. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $39.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.58 billion, a PE ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.57. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $36.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.20.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.02). CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.74% and a net margin of 10.80%. The business had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.55 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.

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