iA Global Asset Management Inc. Buys 2,510 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 10.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,921 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,510 shares during the quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $738,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 163.7% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 894 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares in the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $601,000. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $215,000. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 173,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,956,000 after purchasing an additional 1,317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 270,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,717,000 after purchasing an additional 14,036 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.50.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock traded up $0.40 on Thursday, hitting $28.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 15,523,524 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,876,055. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $29.97 and its 200-day moving average is $28.87. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.42 and a fifty-two week high of $31.57. The company has a market capitalization of $18.01 billion, a PE ratio of 19.70, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the director now owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.