Guggenheim Capital LLC Boosts Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Guggenheim Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 7.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 114,690 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,480 shares during the quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $3,639,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 18.5% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 38,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,243,000 after buying an additional 6,073 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 143,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,789 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,930,000 after purchasing an additional 56,037 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 53.3% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 11,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $364,000 after purchasing an additional 3,983 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Argus upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.46.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $37.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $37.70. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.40. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. Analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.35%.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.