Woodline Partners LP Takes $1.24 Million Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 39,139 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,242,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vident Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 17,811 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $565,000 after purchasing an additional 2,658 shares during the last quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 9,908 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $314,000 after buying an additional 763 shares in the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $333,000. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 195,591 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $6,206,000 after purchasing an additional 2,627 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 48.0% during the 4th quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 27,332 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $867,000 after buying an additional 8,864 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on CNP shares. Evercore ISI increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target 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. boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They set a "buy" rating and a $42.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Argus raised CenterPoint Energy to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $36.04.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CNP traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $37.10. 4,907,057 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,620,873. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $39.31. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $37.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.18. 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 firm has a market cap of $24.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.63.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The business had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.