Inspire Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Inspire Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 10.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,847 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,163 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $656,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CNP. Jump Financial LLC raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 130.3% in the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 22,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $832,000 after buying an additional 13,000 shares during the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $257,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $937,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,225,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,022,000 after acquiring an additional 60,785 shares during the period. Finally, Arcus Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $704,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho set a $42.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.50.

Insider Transactions at CenterPoint Energy

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the firm’s 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 owned 65,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,546,354.91. This trade represents a 8.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of CNP stock opened at $40.00 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.59 and a 1 year high of $40.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $39.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.91. The company has a market cap of $26.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.31, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

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

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.