Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Raises Stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 461 shares during the quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $309,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 11,907 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $378,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 13,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $441,000 after purchasing an additional 432 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 53.0% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 40,054 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,178,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 19,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $626,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $35.54 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The firm has a market cap of $23.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $36.19. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $33.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.62.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.