Heartland Bank & Trust Co Sells 370 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Heartland Bank & Trust Co lowered its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 370 shares during the quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $330,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CNP. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 566.5% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,744,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,330,000 after buying an additional 1,482,966 shares in the last quarter. Teilinger Capital Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,478,000. Zimmer Partners LP raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 98.1% in the 3rd quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,536,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,208,000 after acquiring an additional 760,956 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1,391.8% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 536,379 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $157,800,000 after purchasing an additional 500,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $442,231,000 after purchasing an additional 370,790 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.38.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP opened at $32.37 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The stock has a market cap of $21.10 billion, a PE ratio of 21.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.12.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. 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, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio 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.