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

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.13.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upgraded CenterPoint Energy from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered CenterPoint Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Curat Global LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 58.9% in the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,079 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE:CNP traded up $0.13 on Monday, reaching $37.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,250,307 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,529,198. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $39.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The firm has a market cap of $24.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $36.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.40.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.02). CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.74% and a net margin of 10.80%. The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.36%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.06%.

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.