CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Director Barry T. Smitherman Sells 5,670 Shares

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total value of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:CNP traded up $0.04 on Friday, reaching $29.44. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,650,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,298,630. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.42 and a 12-month high of $31.43. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $28.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.06. The firm has a market cap of $18.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.03% and a return on equity of 10.57%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.50 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.34%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CNP. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 163.7% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 894 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 555 shares during the period. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the first quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the period. Tobam acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at $35,000. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 634.9% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,389 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the period. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth $43,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com raised CenterPoint Energy from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday. Guggenheim reduced their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Evercore ISI lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $30.18.

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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