QRG Capital Management Inc. Increases Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. $CNP

QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,301 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $779,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter valued at $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter valued at $27,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Motco grew its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 107.8% during the first quarter. Motco now owns 1,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CNP shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday. They set an “in-line” rating and a $42.00 price objective for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.86.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP stock opened at $39.12 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $28.57 and a 52 week high of $40.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $1.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.16% and a net margin of 10.42%.During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. CenterPoint Energy has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.740-1.760 EPS. Analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.54%.

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.