Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. Buys 1,396 Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 12.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,479 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,396 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after purchasing an additional 120,085 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,209,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,559,000 after purchasing an additional 256,820 shares during the period. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $399,000. UBS Group AG lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 37.5% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,540,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $41,361,000 after buying an additional 420,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 32.5% during the 4th quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA now owns 416,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,912,000 after acquiring an additional 102,271 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank lowered their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Barclays boosted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price objective (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at CenterPoint Energy

In other news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE CNP traded up $0.05 on Friday, hitting $29.45. 3,650,927 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,725,417. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.42 and a 12 month high of $31.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The company has a market cap of $18.84 billion, a PE ratio of 20.74, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $28.18 and a 200-day moving average of $28.07.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. The company had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.50 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

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.