CNP vs. AEP, EVRG, LNT, AEE, ATO, CMS, NI, OGE, PPL, and WEC
Should you be buying CenterPoint Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of CenterPoint Energy include American Electric Power (AEP), Evergy (EVRG), Alliant Energy (LNT), Ameren (AEE), Atmos Energy (ATO), CMS Energy (CMS), NiSource (NI), OGE Energy (OGE), PPL (PPL), and WEC Energy Group (WEC). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
CenterPoint Energy vs. Its Competitors
American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) and CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, media sentiment and dividends.
American Electric Power has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CenterPoint Energy has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, American Electric Power had 21 more articles in the media than CenterPoint Energy. MarketBeat recorded 31 mentions for American Electric Power and 10 mentions for CenterPoint Energy. CenterPoint Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat American Electric Power's score of 1.30 indicating that CenterPoint Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
American Electric Power presently has a consensus target price of $108.31, suggesting a potential upside of 4.74%. CenterPoint Energy has a consensus target price of $36.04, suggesting a potential upside of 0.90%. Given American Electric Power's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe American Electric Power is more favorable than CenterPoint Energy.
75.2% of American Electric Power shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.8% of CenterPoint Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Electric Power shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of CenterPoint Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
American Electric Power has a net margin of 13.73% compared to CenterPoint Energy's net margin of 10.80%. American Electric Power's return on equity of 11.68% beat CenterPoint Energy's return on equity.
American Electric Power has higher revenue and earnings than CenterPoint Energy. American Electric Power is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CenterPoint Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
American Electric Power pays an annual dividend of $3.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. CenterPoint Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. American Electric Power pays out 71.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CenterPoint Energy pays out 59.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. American Electric Power has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years and CenterPoint Energy has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. American Electric Power is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
American Electric Power beats CenterPoint Energy on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CNP and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
CenterPoint Energy Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:CNP) was last updated on 7/5/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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