Zacks Research Issues Positive Forecast for CNP Earnings

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) – Zacks Research raised their Q4 2024 earnings per share estimates for CenterPoint Energy in a research note issued on Monday, November 18th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now expects that the utilities provider will post earnings per share of $0.40 for the quarter, up from their prior estimate of $0.24. The consensus estimate for CenterPoint Energy’s current full-year earnings is $1.62 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for CenterPoint Energy’s Q4 2025 earnings at $0.45 EPS.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on CNP. KeyCorp cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Two research 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 MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $31.74 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $29.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.15. CenterPoint Energy has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.92.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $557,000 after purchasing an additional 434 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the 2nd 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. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,780,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm 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 $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. CenterPoint Energy’s 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.