What Hedge Funds Think About CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (CNP)

At the moment, there are tons of methods market participants can use to watch the equity markets. A couple of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a solid amount (see just how much).

Equally as useful, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to look at the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of incentives for an insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if “monkeys” know where to look (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to discuss the recent info about CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP).

What have hedge funds been doing with CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)?

In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 21% from the first quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, holds the biggest position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP). OZ Management has a $275.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.9% of its 13F portfolio. On OZ Management’s heels is Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, which held a $93.1 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As industrywide interest increased, certain money managers have been driving this bullishness. OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, established the most outsized position in CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP). OZ Management had 275.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management also initiated a $93.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)?

Legal insider trading, particularly when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last half-year time frame, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP). These stocks are Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (NYSE:PEG), Northeast Utilities System (NYSE:NU), Ameren Corp (NYSE:AEE), NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG), and NiSource Inc. (NYSE:NI). This group of stocks are the members of the diversified utilities industry and their market caps are closest to CNP’s market cap.

Using the returns shown by the previously mentioned strategies, average investors should always pay attention to hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) is an important part of this process.

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