Royal Bank of Canada Buys 197,546 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 33.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 784,199 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 197,546 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned 0.12% of CenterPoint Energy worth $28,411,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Energy Income Partners LLC grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% during the first quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 2,518,660 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $91,251,000 after purchasing an additional 65,277 shares during the period. Decade Renewable Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth $1,975,000. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth $3,769,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 325.3% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 48,186 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,746,000 after acquiring an additional 36,856 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 36.0% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 24,217 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $877,000 after acquiring an additional 6,406 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Scotiabank increased their target price 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. Barclays increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Mizuho set a $39.00 price objective on CenterPoint Energy and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.71.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE CNP traded up $0.26 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $38.05. 2,043,100 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,204,142. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.83. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.32 and a 1 year high of $39.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $24.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.58.

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 for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.20 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. CenterPoint Energy has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.740-1.760 EPS. On average, analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.54%.

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.