CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Short Interest Update

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,670,000 shares, a drop of 8.4% from the October 31st total of 18,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 5,680,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

CenterPoint Energy stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $32.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,347,237 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,300,124. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $30.27 and its 200 day moving average is $29.29. CenterPoint Energy has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $33.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 55.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Scotiabank raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.58.

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.