15,273 Shares in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Bought by MQS Management LLC

MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 15,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $435,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after buying an additional 120,085 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $1,625,000. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 305,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,735,000 after buying an additional 60,223 shares during the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 837.7% in the first quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 210,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,985,000 after acquiring an additional 187,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth about $1,109,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:CNP traded down $0.14 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $28.88. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,390,196 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,713,998. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.42 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.03% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The business had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.82 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on CNP shares. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.60.

Insider Transactions at CenterPoint Energy

In related news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total value of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy 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.