CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Short Interest Update

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 18,190,000 shares, a decline of 6.0% from the October 15th total of 19,350,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNP has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America began coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. KeyCorp cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.09.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at about $265,000. Blair William & Co. IL raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 5.4% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 16,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $461,000 after acquiring an additional 833 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 66.8% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 22,274 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 8,917 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 487.8% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 40,024 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,140,000 after acquiring an additional 33,215 shares during the period. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 672,081 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,163,000 after purchasing an additional 39,022 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP stock opened at $31.15 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $31.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.30 billion, a PE ratio of 20.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 52.98%.

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.