Souders Financial Advisors Buys New Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Souders Financial Advisors acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 7,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,116,586 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,619,000 after purchasing an additional 160,154 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 19,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $626,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,204 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $546,000 after purchasing an additional 878 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 57.4% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 13,195 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $419,000 after purchasing an additional 4,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,696 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 709 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $33.87 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $34.85. The firm has a market cap of $22.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.30, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s fifty day moving average is $32.63 and its 200 day moving average is $30.75.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 55.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on CNP. Barclays boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.65.

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.