Legal & General Group Plc Sells 597,152 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 9.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,966,716 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 597,152 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.91% of CenterPoint Energy worth $219,217,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Motco lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 107.8% in the 1st quarter. Motco now owns 1,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $39.58 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a PE ratio of 25.05, 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. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $30.59 and a 52-week high of $40.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $39.15 and a 200 day moving average of $37.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 10.25%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. Barclays increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total value of $240,746.00. Following the sale, the director owned 65,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,546,354.91. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.