Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Decreases Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA decreased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,821,266 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 139,483 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 0.92% of CenterPoint Energy worth $166,314,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 0.7% in the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 52,633 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,413,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. raised 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 valued at $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 406 shares in the last quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC raised its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 163.7% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 894 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 555 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings 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 valued at $321,000 after acquiring an additional 573 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP traded up $0.07 on Wednesday, hitting $29.75. The company had a trading volume of 3,816,343 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,337,676. The stock has a market cap of $19.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $28.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.20. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.42 and a 1-year high of $31.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. Analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on CNP. Barclays boosted their price objective 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. Evercore ISI cut CenterPoint Energy from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim cut their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $30.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CenterPoint Energy news, 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 transaction of $166,811.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.