CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Receives $29.90 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $29.90.

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of 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. Morgan Stanley cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $26.47 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $29.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.79. CenterPoint Energy has a 12 month low of $25.42 and a 12 month high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 163.7% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 894 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 173,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,956,000 after acquiring an additional 1,317 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 270,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,717,000 after acquiring an additional 14,036 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 439.2% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 128,599 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $36,740,000 after acquiring an additional 104,751 shares during the period. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $391,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Company 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.