Holocene Advisors LP Takes $6.81 Million Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 231,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,806,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake 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 buying an additional 12,422 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in 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 valued at $32,630,000 after acquiring an additional 124,529 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $908,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CNP. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.58.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $32.14 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $20.95 billion, a PE ratio of 21.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.21 and a 200-day moving average of $29.28. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $33.00.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.31. The firm 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 earned $0.40 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

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

CenterPoint Energy 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.