Metis Global Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Metis Global Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 484 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $604,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Huntington National Bank increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 15.2% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 4,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $124,000 after acquiring an additional 556 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,441,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,422,000 after purchasing an additional 5,981 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,969,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 25,697 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $756,000 after buying an additional 736 shares during the period. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $52,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. KeyCorp lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $30.86 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $20.11 billion, a PE ratio of 20.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued 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 business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.63%.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.