CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Short Interest Down 5.3% in March

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,720,000 shares, a drop of 5.3% from the March 15th total of 12,380,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,240,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $27.70 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.53 billion, a PE ratio of 20.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.42 and a one year high of $31.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $27.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.32. The company had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.55% and a return on equity of 10.44%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CNP shares. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Barclays increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.30.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth $94,750,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 68.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,638,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $234,036,000 after acquiring an additional 3,096,455 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 10.0% during 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. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after acquiring an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 175.3% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 3,618,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $97,162,000 after acquiring an additional 2,304,183 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.