Baillie Gifford & Co. Acquires 322,163 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 553.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 380,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 322,163 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. owned 0.06% of CenterPoint Energy worth $14,757,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at $313,456,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 31.6% during the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,859,693 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $288,765,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886,374 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 3,842.1% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,609,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $59,135,000 after acquiring an additional 1,568,714 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 81,362,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,989,256,000 after acquiring an additional 1,301,374 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tredje AP fonden raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,953.5% in the second quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 1,010,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,114,000 after acquiring an additional 960,978 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CNP shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho set a $42.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. KeyCorp raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.82.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.3%

NYSE:CNP opened at $38.74 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.76 and a 1 year high of $40.50. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.50. The stock has a market cap of $25.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.52, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76.

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. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 11.37%.The business had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 55.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CenterPoint Energy

In other news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 65,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,546,354.91. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CenterPoint Energy Company Profile

CenterPoint Energy, Inc (NYSE: CNP) is a Houston-based regulated utility company that provides electric and natural gas delivery services and related infrastructure operations. The company’s principal activities center on the transmission and distribution of electricity in the greater Houston metropolitan area and the distribution of natural gas to customers across several states in the Midwest and South. As a vertically integrated utility, CenterPoint focuses on the reliable delivery of energy through owned and operated networks of lines, pipelines and associated facilities.

CenterPoint’s core businesses include regulated electric transmission and distribution services, regulated natural gas distribution, and the operation and maintenance of energy infrastructure.