CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Shares Sold by Hennessy Advisors Inc.

Hennessy Advisors Inc. cut its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) by 4.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 455,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 19,600 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in CenterPoint Energy were worth $12,984,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CNP. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 344,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,254,000 after buying an additional 18,992 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 165,682 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,449,000 after purchasing an additional 12,677 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,906,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $158,597,000 after buying an additional 105,404 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $382,000. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.5% in the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 277,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,445,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.0 %

CNP stock traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $30.80. 1,369,301 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,472,936. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.78. The company has a market capitalization of $19.70 billion, a PE ratio of 21.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $25.42 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.03% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 56.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CNP shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.00.

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.