Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Invests $399,000 in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 13,949 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $399,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 73,506,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,252,230,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,900 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,279,592 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,019,687,000 after acquiring an additional 3,035,409 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,971,112 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $381,258,000 after acquiring an additional 195,919 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,239,922 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $221,242,000 after acquiring an additional 442,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,709,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $231,220,000 after acquiring an additional 28,834 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CNP traded up $0.58 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $28.53. 3,337,756 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,265,213. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $27.91 and a 200-day moving average of $27.94. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.42 and a 52 week high of $31.43. The stock has a market cap of $18.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.98, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.78.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.32. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.55% and a return on equity of 10.44%. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Barclays upped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Evercore ISI lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.30.

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.