Vanguard Group Inc. Has $2.90 Billion Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy, owning 80,061,059 shares after adding 671,868 shares, leading to 12.27% ownership worth approximately $2.9 billion.
• CenterPoint Energy reported a Q2 EPS of $0.29, falling short of analysts' expectations of $0.44, and had quarterly revenue of $1.94 billion compared to the projected $2.20 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.3%, to be paid on September 11th to shareholders of record on August 21st.

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 0.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 80,061,059 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 671,868 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 12.27% of CenterPoint Energy worth $2,900,612,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.6% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 80,229 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,907,000 after purchasing an additional 6,377 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,913 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $721,000 after purchasing an additional 1,615 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 864,175 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,309,000 after purchasing an additional 26,153 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 32.6% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,314,131 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $73,427,000 after purchasing an additional 569,389 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 166,743 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $6,041,000 after purchasing an additional 8,914 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on CNP shares. Scotiabank lifted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Mizuho set a $39.00 target price on CenterPoint Energy and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $37.38.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP traded down $0.05 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $38.43. 847,735 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,296,581. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $39.39. The company has a market cap of $25.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.86, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.58. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $36.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.13.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 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 firm had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. CenterPoint Energy's payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

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.