California Public Employees Retirement System Boosts Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,664,835 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 46,149 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.58% of CenterPoint Energy worth $104,704,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.7% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 52,633 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,413,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 40,811 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 406 shares during the period. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.2% during the third quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 10,505 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 163.7% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 894 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares during the period. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.0% during the third quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,954 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $321,000 after purchasing an additional 573 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company's stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of CNP stock traded up $0.34 on Wednesday, hitting $29.07. 4,111,656 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,225,818. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.42 and a fifty-two week high of $31.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. The business has a 50-day moving average of $27.96 and a 200 day moving average of $27.98.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.32. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.44% and a net margin of 10.55%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on CNP. Scotiabank decreased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Mizuho reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Guggenheim decreased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. KeyCorp boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $30.18.

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.