CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target Lowered to $34.00 at Morgan Stanley

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Free Report) had its price target decreased by Morgan Stanley from $35.00 to $34.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider's stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on CNP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Guggenheim lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and raised their price target for the company from $30.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $36.04.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $37.58. 2,207,192 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,112,166. The company has a market cap of $24.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.63, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.63. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $37.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. CenterPoint Energy has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $39.31.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.55 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.34%. CenterPoint Energy's dividend payout ratio is 59.06%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Curat Global LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth $25,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth $25,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.