Aspire Private Capital LLC Has $614,000 Stock Position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)

Aspire Private Capital LLC grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,345 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 674 shares during the period. Aspire Private Capital LLC’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $614,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 370,790 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $147,387,000 after acquiring an additional 247,944 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,398,000 after buying an additional 110,905 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,177,364 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,478,000 after purchasing an additional 65,139 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,611,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $80,914,000 after buying an additional 200,693 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $33.09 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.64. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $33.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.56 billion, a PE ratio of 21.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. Analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 58.28%.

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.