CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Sold by Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 397 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $363,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 15,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $449,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares in the last quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 40,811 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 406 shares in the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $557,000 after purchasing an additional 434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% during the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 20th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.60.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP traded down $0.17 on Monday, reaching $29.19. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,923,047 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,735,943. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $30.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.87. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.42 and a 52-week high of $31.57. 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 capitalization of $18.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.56, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

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.