CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, June 13th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%.

CenterPoint Energy has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 3 years. CenterPoint Energy has a payout ratio of 46.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect CenterPoint Energy to earn $1.74 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.0%.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP traded down $0.48 during trading on Friday, hitting $28.86. 3,335,553 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,232,023. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.58. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.42 and a 1 year high of $31.43. The company has a market cap of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.22, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $28.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.01.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.55% and a return on equity of 10.44%. The firm had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on CNP. Barclays boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Evercore ISI lowered CenterPoint Energy from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and upped their target price for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Mizuho reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $29.00 price target (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $30.18.

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.