Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP – Get Rating) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 780,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 42,891 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of CenterPoint Energy worth $23,419,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. RENASANT Bank boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 61.1% in the fourth quarter. RENASANT Bank now owns 11,753 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $352,000 after acquiring an additional 4,456 shares during the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $265,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,982,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 29.7% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 393,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,811,000 after acquiring an additional 90,173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MAI Capital Management purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $306,000. 90.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at CenterPoint Energy

In other news, Director Ted Pound sold 2,770 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.50, for a total value of $84,485.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 46,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,419,500.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Ted Pound sold 2,770 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.50, for a total value of $84,485.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 46,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,419,500.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.51, for a total transaction of $152,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $642,998.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $31.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Monday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $33.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.75.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $28.59 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.04 billion, a PE ratio of 22.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.88. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.03 and a 1-year high of $33.50.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.79 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 8.99% and a return on equity of 9.97%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.49 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 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be issued a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 60.32%.

CenterPoint Energy Profile

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CenterPoint Energy, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the business of power generation and distribution. It operates through the following segments: CenterPoint Energy, Houston Electric, and CERC. The CenterPoint Energy segment consists of electric transmission and distribution services in the Texas gulf coast area in the ERCOT region and electric transmission and distribution services primarily to southwestern Indiana and includes power generation and wholesale power operations in the MISO region.