CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have given a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $30.58.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CNP. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 1.0 %

CNP stock opened at $31.66 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $33.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $20.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $30.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.34.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 55.63%.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CNP. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% in the third quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the second quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,780,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the period. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,000 after buying an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.