Cetera Investment Advisers Has $3.82 Million Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 103,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,226 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,821,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $254,000. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 17,018 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $617,000 after acquiring an additional 802 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 47.1% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 24,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 7,895 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 18.0% in the 1st quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $885,000 after acquiring an additional 3,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 18,955 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $687,000 after acquiring an additional 812 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CNP. Barclays raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

Insider Transactions at CenterPoint Energy

In related news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total transaction of $240,746.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 65,577 shares in the company, valued at $2,546,354.91. This trade represents a 8.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $39.39 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.59 and a 52-week high of $40.50. The company has a market capitalization of $25.71 billion, a PE ratio of 24.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.51. The company has a fifty day moving average of $39.21 and a 200-day moving average of $37.95.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 11.37%.During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.70%.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.