Capstone Investment Advisors LLC Sells 3,665 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Capstone Investment Advisors LLC cut its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 24.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,520 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,665 shares during the quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $43,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $32.65 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. The company has a 50-day moving average of $30.05 and a 200-day moving average of $29.25. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $32.86. The company has a market capitalization of $21.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.62, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.63%.

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.