Neo Ivy Capital Management Takes Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 61,730 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,816,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,287,000 after purchasing an additional 152,878 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 18.7% in the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 78,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,442,000 after purchasing an additional 12,422 shares during the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter worth approximately $908,000. ING Groep NV bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter worth approximately $2,564,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 13.4% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,052,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,630,000 after purchasing an additional 124,529 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on CNP. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.58.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $31.39 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $20.46 billion, a PE ratio of 20.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.96. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $33.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $30.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $29.36.

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

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.63%.

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.