CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Sold by Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC

Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC cut its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 41.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,479 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,750 shares during the period. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $79,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $442,231,000 after buying an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $147,387,000 after acquiring an additional 247,944 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $144,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,484,079 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $125,275,000 after acquiring an additional 53,655 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,398,000 after purchasing an additional 110,905 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $32.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $21.24 billion, a PE ratio of 21.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $31.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $33.00.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.22 dividend. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CNP. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.27.

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.