Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,835 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,477 shares during the quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $693,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ING Groep NV purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,564,000. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $908,000. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,863,000 after buying an additional 24,400 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth $705,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,930,000 after acquiring an additional 56,037 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on CNP. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target for the company. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.46.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $32.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.39, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.12. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.74.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, equities 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. 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.