KeyCorp Raises CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target to $33.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price objective boosted by KeyCorp from $31.00 to $33.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on CNP. Barclays boosted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Evercore ISI cut CenterPoint Energy from an outperform rating to an in-line rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Mizuho restated a neutral rating and set a $29.00 price objective (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $30.36.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $30.06 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.31. The company has a market cap of $19.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy has a 52-week low of $25.42 and a 52-week high of $31.43.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CenterPoint Energy

In other news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total transaction of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 15,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $449,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 52,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,413,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $541,000 after acquiring an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 40,811 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,166,000 after acquiring an additional 406 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Checchi Capital Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 10,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.